LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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V 



HOMEWARD BOUND 



FROM THE 



Chesapeake to the Mersey 

IJST THE SCHOONER YACHT 

"NATHALIE," 

200 TONS. 

CLEW GARNET, ESCL 

In the Summer of 1881. 






BY 

11 O. HAUGH' 




Baltimore: ^ ^Q/wash i^ 
DOWLING & CO., Printers and Binders^ 
No. 166 West Baltimore Street. 

1882, 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 
H. O. HAUGHTON, 
In the Office of the librarian of Congress, at Washington, T). C. 




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THE BRITISH ENSIGN 

is composed of a white, blue or red field with the 

THE UNION JACK. 

Until the reign of King James the First, of England, 
who had been James the Sixth, of Scotland, and son of 
the unhappy Mary, Queen of Scots, 

THE SAINT GEORGE'S CROSS, 

Red upon white ground had been the flag of England. 
On the 12th of April, 1606 

THE SAINT ANDREW'S CROSS 

of Scotland, white diagonal upon blue ground was merged 
with it, and the blending of the two and 

THE SAINT PATRICK'S CROSS, 

of Ireland, also a diagonal, of red upon white ground, 
effected after the Union, on the 1st of January,. 1801, 
completed the group of Christian symbols that has since 
been the national emblem of England and her dependencies. 
The name " Union Jack," is presumed to have been 
adopted from "Jacques" or " Jacobus," in commemora- 
tion of the reign during which the junction was first conceived 
and determined. 



THE AMERICAN ENSIGN. 

It is difficult to trace the origin of the American flag, as 
voluminous writers who have made it their special purpose, 
appear to have failed to produce anything but conjecture, 
supported by more or less probability. 

It is certain that General Washington carried the striped 
field with the English Jack as then composed of the St. 
George's and St. Andrew's Crosses. 

The thirteen stars and thirteen stripes were adopted by 
Congress, January 14th, 1777. 

It is reasonable to presume that the field was suggested 
by its fac simile in use in the British Navy as a signal for 
the Red Division to draw into line of battle ; the blue 
ground of the Jack from the British ; substituting the stars 
for the crosses, which were objectionable to the Puritan 
sentiment of the time. 



PREFACE. 



" Scribimus indocti doctique." — Horace. 

The Author, if the word be not presumptuous, 
a lover of "the blue, the fresh, the ever free," 
and familiar with its eccentricities in its frowns, 
as well as its smiles, has occupied a period of 
enforced leisure in grouping without experience, 
with but indifferent capabilities, and untutored 
imagination, the commonplace incidents so far as 
they emanate from him, in this little log. He 
transcribes the satirical truism from one whose 
writings are immortal, as an excuse for dressing 
it in type to meet the public. 



"Nature never did betray 
The heart that loved her." — Wordsworth. 

And I have loved thee, Ocean ! and my joy 
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be 
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward : from a boy 
I wantoiTd with thy breakers, — they to me 
Were a delight ; and if the freshning sea — 
Made them a terror — 'twas a pleasing fear, 
For I was as it were a child of thee, 
And trusted to thy billows far and near, 
And laid my hand upon thy mane — as I do here. 

— "Childe Harold." 



A taste for yachting is an acquired one and capable of 
very extended culture. The yachtsman may be said to 
belong to a race of superior beings, whose faculties have 
an unbounded range, instead of a certain limited patch of 
earth — the entire globe is his domain. His freedom is not 
the freedom of a city, but a planet, and the most refined 
and educated man can only be enobled by its attainment. 

— Brett. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Part of the first Patent granted by His Majestie [James 
the First,] for the Plantation of Virginia, April 10th, 1606. 

" Whereas, our loving and well disposed subjects, Sir 
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Knights, Richard Hak- 
luyt, clerke, Prebendary of Westminster, Edward Maria 
Wingfield, Thomas Hannam, Rawleigh Gilbert, Esquires, 
William Parker, George Popham and divers others of our 
loving subjects have been humble suitors unto us that we 
would vouchsafe unto them our Licence to make habitation, 
Plantation, and to deduce a Colonie of Sundrie of our 
People into that part of America commonly called Virginia," 
&c , &c. 

On Saturday, the twentieth of December, in the yeare 
1606, the fleet* fell from London, and the fift of January 
anchored in the Downes. * * By unprosperous Winds 
we were kept six weeks in sight of England. We watered 
at Canaries; we traded with the Saluagesat Dominica, three 



•" Susan Constant," Captain Newport, of 100 tons, 71 passengers. 
11 God Speed," Captain Gosnold, of 40 tons, 52 passengers. 
11 Discovery," Captain Radcliffe, of 20 tons, 21 passengers. 



8 Homeward Bound, 

weeks we spent in refreshing ourselves amongst the West 
India Islands. In Guardalupa we found a bath so hot as in 
it we Boyled Porck as well as over the fire, and at a little He 
called Moneca. we tooke from the bushes with our hands 
neare two hogsheads full of birds in three or four houres. 
In Mevis, Mona and the Virgin Islands we Spent some time, 
wherewith a lothsome beast like a crocodil, called a Gwayn, 
Tortoises, Pellicans, Parrots, and fishes we daily feasted * * 

"The tenth day [of April] we fet faile and desimboged 
out of the West Indies and bare our courfe Northerly. 
The fourteenth day we paffed the Tropicke of Cancer, the 
one and twentieth day, about fiue o'clocke at night there 
began a vehement tempest which lafted all the night with 
windf, raine, and thunderf in a terrible manner. Wee were 
forced to lie at Hull, (*. e. under bare poles) that night 
becaufe we thought wee had bene nearer land than wee were. 

" The next morning being the two and twentieth day, we 
founded, and the three and twentieth, and foure and twenti- 
eth day, but we could find no ground. The fiue and twenti- 
eth day we founded and had no ground at an hundred 
fathom. The fix and twentieth day of Aprill, about foure 
o'clocke in the morning, wee descried the land of Virginia, 
the same day wee entered into the Bay of Chesupioc directly 
without any let or hindrance, there wee landed and dis- 
couered a little way, but wee could find nothing worth 
the fpeaking of but faire meddowes and goodly tall Trees 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 9 

with fuch frefh waters running through the woods as I was 
almost ravished at the first sight thereof. 

"At night when wee were going aboard, there carne the 
sauages creeping vpon all foure from the Hills like Beares, 
with their Bowes in their mouthes, charged vs very desper- 
ately in the faces, hurt Captain Gabril Archer, in both 
his hands, and a fayler in two places of the body, very 
dangerous. After they had spent their arrowes, and felt 
the sharpneff of our shot, they retired into the Woods with 
a great noise, and so left us. The seuen and twentieth day 
we began to build vp our shallop. The gentlemen and 
foldiers marched eight miles vp into the land, we could not 
see a sauage in all that march. We came to a place where 
they had made a great fire, and had beene newly a rofting 
oysters \ when they perceived our comming they fled away 
to the mountains, and left many of the oysters in the fire ; 
we eat some of the oysters which were very large and delicate 
in taste. * * When it grew to be toward night we stood 
back to our ships, we sounded and found it shallow water 
for a great way, which put vs out of all hopes for getting any 
higher with our ships which road at the mouth of the Riuer. 
We rowed over to a point of land where wee found a chan- 
nel], and founded six, eight, ten or twelve fathom, which 
put vs in good comfort. Therefore wee named that point 
of land Cape Com fort j\ * * 

tNow Old Point Comfort. 



10 Homeward Bound, 

« The nine and twentieth day we fet up a Croffe at Chesu- 
pioc Bay, and named that place Cape Henry. 

"The thirteenth day [of May], we came to our feating 
place in Paspihas Country, where our shippes do lie so near the 
shoare that they are moored to the Trees in six fathom water. 
" The Riuer which wee haue discouered is one of the famof- 
fest Riuers that euer was found by any Christian. It ebbes 
and flowes a hundred and threescore miles, where shipps of 
great burden may harbour in faftie. * * As for fturgeon 
all the World cannot be compared to it. 

" They resolved upon a Peninsula, upon the north side of 
the River Powhatan, forty miles from the mouthy which they 
named Jamestown, in honor of King James the First, then 
reigning in England. " 

* * "The company was not a little discomforted 
seeing the mariners had three days passed their reckonings 
and found no land, so that Captaine Radcliffe rather desired 
to beare up the helme to return for England than make 
further search. 

" But God, the giver of all good actions, forcing them by 
an extreme storme to hull all night, did drive them by His 
Providence to their desired Port beyond all their expecta- 
tions, for never any of them had seen that coast. The first 
land they made they called Cape Henry.' ' 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 1 1 

CHESUPIOC BAY. 



" The north Cape is called Cape Charles, in honour of the 
Worthy Duke of York, [afterwards King Charles the First, 
of England, and brother of Prince Henry, in whose honour 
Cape Henry was called. ]" 

u The lies before it are called Smith's lies ; because he 
firft of ourf fet foot on them. 

' ' Within is a Countrey that may have the prerogative ouer 
the moft pleafant placef of Europe, Afia, Africa, or America, 
for large and pleafant nauigable Riuers. Heauen and Earth 
never agreed better to frame a place for manf habitation, 
being of our Conftitutionf, were it fully mannured and 
inhabited by induftriouf people. Here are Mountaynes, 
Plaines, Vallies, Riuers and Brookes, all running most pleaf- 
antly into a faire Bay, Compaffed but for the mouth with fruit- 
ful and delightfome land. In the Bay and Riuers are many 
lies both great and fmall, fome woodie, fome plaine, moft 
of them low and not inhabited. 

< ' This Bay lieth north and fouth, in which the water floweth 
neare two hundred milef, and hath a channel for one hundred 
and fortie milef, of a depth betwixt seuen and fifteene fadom, 
holding in breadth for the moft part ten or fourteene miles. 

" From the head of the bay at the north, the land is moun- 
tainous, and so in a manner from thence by a fouthweft 



12 Homeward Bound, 

line, so that the more fouthward the farther off from the 
Bay are thofe mountainef. From which fall certaine 
Brookes, which after come to fiue, large, principall naui- 
gable Riuers. These runne from the northweft into the 
south eaft, and fo into the weft fide of the Bay where the 
fall of euery Riuer, if within twentie or fifteene milef one of 
another. The countrie is not mountainouf, nor yet low, 
but fuch pleafant plainef, Hills and fertile Vallief, one 
prettily croffing another and watered so conveniently with 
their fweet Brookes and Criftall fprings as if art itfelf 
had diuifed them. By the Riuers are many plaine mariihef 
contayning fome twentie, fome one hundred acref, fome 
more, fome less, other plaines there are few, but only where 
the sauages inhabit : but all overgrowne with Trees and 
Weeds being a plaine wilderneff as God firft made it." 




dl^lSL&l^.iTA" 



"■'— 1';\ 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 



* tl Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito." — ^Eneid. 

FOR the American and Englishman alike, the Chesa- 
peake Bay abounds in historic richness. For the 
former, inasmuch as it is the birthplace of his nation, 
and for the latter in that it was he who bore the burden 
and heat of those days that dawned upon the early struggles 
and ultimate achievement of the first English speaking 
settlement upon the Continent. 

For him who, disburdened of sentiment, may accept the 
glory of the conquest, it affords additional interest as the 
. scene of the surrender of the possession conferred by dis- 
covery and colonization, with the sword of Lord Cornwallis 
upon the field of Yorktown. In a brisk walk of a couple of 
hours, the cradle and the tomb of Old England's souvrainty 

* Yield not thou to adversity but rather press onward the more 
bravely. 



14 Homeward Bound, 

may be visited, a pilgrimage that, if made but in a dream, 
must provoke more than a passing emotion from him who, 
bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh, has made himself 
familiar with the occurrences of scarce less than two inter- 
vening centuries. 

Five expeditions and as many reliefs and searches had 
spent their energies and resources in unsuccessful attempts 
to found a settlement at Roanoke Island, in Albemarle 
Sound. One had been actually annihilated without leav- 
ing a trace of its dissolution. But in those days the spirit 
of adventure was superior to the wisdom with which its 
ends were sought to be accomplished. The chivalry, the 
heroism, were forthcoming, as they have ever been where 
the Briton is concerned, but the substance was not chosen, 
nor were supplies provided with a view to combat success- 
fully the rough exigencies of primeval settlement. Out of 
one hundred and five immigrants in the first contingent, 
but twelve were tillers of the soil, and forty-eight were gen- 
tlemen unused to as they were unfitted for physical labour. 

"I entreat you" wrote the ruling spirit of the suffering 
colony of Jamestown, " rather send but thirty carpenters, 
husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and 
diggers up of trees' roots well provided, than a thousand 
such as we have ; for except we be able to both lodge and 
feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries 
before they can be made good for anything. " 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. lO 

When Captain Newport, who commanded the little fleet, 
left upon his return homeward, " there were never English- 
men left in a Forreigne countrie in such miserie as wee were 
in this new discouered Virginia." The young province had 
to graduate in the school of affliction. The early longings 
for gold, which it was presumed would be forthcoming in 
virgin purity, had to be tempered into conviction, that 
there as elsewhere it was only to be acquired by toil, and the 
lesson once committed to heart the prospects of the settler 
brightened. 

The alternative attraction, the discovery of a short route 
to India, also failing them, the disappointments with the 
concomitant sufferings, chilled the spirit of endurance, 
while it nursed the demon of despair. Within a short time 
but forty of the colonists remained alive, and of these scarce 
ten were in a condition to meet the stern duties imposed upon 
them by untoward circumstances. At a later period in the ill- 
fortunes of the colony, out of five hundred left by Captain 
John Smith when he returned to England, but sixty or 
thereabouts survived within a twelvemonth to support a 
wretched and intolerable existence. Once, indeed, the 
settlement was actually abandoned. "None dropped a 
tear, for none had enjoyed one day of happiness." But the 
famished and despairing remnant was fortunately arrested 
at the mouth of the river by the fleet of Lord De la Warre, 
who had opportunely arrived with an accession of unwearied 



1 6 Homeward Bound, 

enthusiasm and wholesome supplies, and the colony became 
reanimated and encouraged. " Our drink was unwhole- 
some water, our lodgings castles in the air. Had we been 
as free from all sins as from gluttony and drunkenness, we 
might have been canonized as saints," complained these 
poor undisciplined sufferers. Lord Baltimore's immigrants, 
for the settlement of Maryland arriving in the "Ark " and 
the ." Dove " at the mouth of the Potomac in 1634, were 
much better provided, owing to the experience gained by 
him as proprietor of Avalon, in Newfoundland, which he 
had abondoned for the balmier regions of the Chesapeake. 

Specially rent and harrassed as was the period the 
noxious weed of religious intolerance was not transplanted 
to the Virginia and Maryland colonies to take root and lux- 
uriate in their virgin soil and wither the blossoms of their 
dawn. Neither had the tyranny and bitterness that pervaded 
the New England regime any inheritance in the Chesapeake. 
The dominant and supplanted communions lived side 
by side without evincing a melancholy interest in the eternal 
perdition each of the other. In the proprietory of Lord 
Baltimore, himself a convert from the Church of England 
to the Church of Rome, the possibility of occurrences likely 
to mar the rights or the harmonies of Christians was pro- 
vided against by legal enactment. 

In the Jamestown settlement religious freedom seems only 
to have been suspended in the non-admission of Puritan 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 17 

missionaries. It was not, however, from any want of 
consideration for the spiritual welfare of the peculiar sect, 
but from the fact that their political zeal there, as elsewhere, 
was distasteful to a people who were the last to recognize the 
Commonwealth, the first to hail the Restoration. Had their 
exhortations partaken more of spiritual and less of temporal 
considerations, had they been about their Master's business, 
they would not have been unwelcome bearers of the Glad 
Tidings perhaps to others than those of their own household 
of faith. The Puritan was, however, a strange combina- 
tion of inconsistencies, a republican in temporal affairs, an 
autocrat in spiritual. Posing as a martyr in the cause 
of religious toleration, he held in his model Utopia that, 
u to say that men ought to have liberty of conscience is 
impious ignorance," and while fertile in opprobrious 
denunciations of Laud, he meted out with no less cruelty 
and oppression punishments such as the lash, expulsion 
from his Agapemone, and even death, as alternatives to 
submission to his intolerable and inhuman will. It was, 
it must be admitted, an age of inhumanity, and in this 
light must be weighed the acts of both Cavalier and Round- 
head. But there was a sweet unction in the perpetration of 
atrocities in the sacred name of religion, peculiar to this 
reckless sect. They shook from their feet the dust of 
loyalty to the land of their birth as its chalk cliffs faded 
from their sight, and became thenceforth the active and 



18 Homeward Bound, 

successful instruments in the severance of the family con- 
nection between the Old World and the New. 

In the Old England, when the Long Parliament exacted 
from the King, by quite as questionable proceedings as he is, 
we believe with extravagant austerity unjustly accused of 
adopting toward his subjects, all that he could have been fairly 
expected to concede, consistent with prescription and regard 
for his successors, the Puritan was still unsatiated, his lawless 
caprice ran riot, goaded as he had been, much owing to his own 
indiscretions — into revenge he threw aside all semblance of 
right and justice, and, intoxicated with power, usurped with- 
out scruple, drowning conscience in spoliation and steeping 
his hands in murder and butchery. " He prostrated himself 
in the dust before his Maker : but he set his foot on the neck 
of his King." He arranged for himself which of the com- 
mandments it behoved him to regard and which to ignore, 
and yearned in the fellowship of that " Sacrament of blood 
by which they had bound themselves closely together, and 
separated themselves forever from the great body of their 
countrymen." 

How different the spirit and loyal reverence of the 
Chesapeake colonists. They objected strenuously, and no 
doubt fairly, to much in the political part reserved for them 
by the home government, a part, be it remembered, of no 
aristocratic origin, but forced upon Parliament by the 
tradesmen of the nation, jealous of the pretentions of their 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 19 

colonial opponents, not the least obnoxious of their fetters, 
forged by the Rump and the Protectorate, but they never 
assumed to be a separate people, and viewed with vehe- 
ment repugnance the levelling and cold-hearted doctrines of 
the Puritan. 

It required a long course of folly on the part of the Par- 
liament to estrange them from their attachment to "home," 
and to unite them in brotherhood with the cannie New 
Englander; and the daily prayer amidst all their sufferings 
was, " God bless England, our sweet native country." 
Neither did the majority of the colonies desire or dream of 
independence. They were driven by invincible necessity to 
fight for it ultimately, but they girt their loins and buckled 
on their swords with reluctance and many conscientious 
scruples, yielding with hesitation to the hard decree. 

The Virginia settlement " was established by a set of 
daring enthusiasts, and even chivalrous adventurers. The 
characters of the people were effected by that of their great 
leader." 

" The Puritan fleeing from oppression, withdrew himself 
from the communion of all churches but his own, and made 
his own will the paramount law." 

He was beyond doubt the better settler in an economic 
sense. He has made the barren rocks to blossom as the rose, 
while the Chesapeake Cashmere has, in a relative degree, 
scarce as yet cast her bread upon the waters. His class has 



20 Homeward Bound, 

contributed largely to the wealth of England, but it is from 
the same stock mainly, and still the inconsistency is 
preserved, that the disturbing and visionary element is also 
derived. It is he who essays to pull down without method 
for substitution. He it is who is the iconoclast, reckless of 
the ruin in which ages may be involved. 

Had the "unprosperous" gale that drove the "May 
Flower," destined for the fertile plains of the Hudson, to 
the bleakest of coasts, been in an opposite mood, in what a 
hive of industry should we now be labourers, How the 
spindles would jingle upon the water privileges so profusely 
ornamenting our streams and rivers, as they wander to- 
ward the tides of the bay. 

If the Pilgrim could make the worst wilderness bear, 
Think, think what a hive he would make of it here. 

With many apologies to the shades of "Moore." 
Our purpose scarce warrants the following these settle- 
ments as their stability expanded and as their fortunes rose. 
Every circumstance attending their struggles and ultimate 
successes is replete with interest as their history with episode. 
Nor is romance absent from their picturesque and sylvan sur- 
roundings. As the flaxen haired, blue -eyed beauty of Rowena 
laid its spell upon Vortigern while handing him the brim- 
ming goblet with "thy health, dear King," and their subse- 
quent marriage sloped the way to the Saxon inundation of the 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 21 

land of the Briton, so was the marriage of Pocahontas, the 
favorite daughter of the chief Powhatan, with the settler 
Rolfe the means of soothing the Indian into resignation to 
the foothold the white man had secured in his dominions. 
"They hurt you not," said he, in reply to the suspicious 
murmurings of his subjects, "they take but a little waste 
land," and Rowena "dear King, they are my people, be 
favorable to them as you loved that Saxon girl who gave 
you the golden goblet of wine at the feast." 

u What lost a world and bade a hero fly ? 
The timid tear in Cleopatra's eye. 
Yet be the soft triumvir's fault forgiven ; 
By this — how many lose not earth — but Heaven ? " 

The Appomatocks were delighted with the bond of 
union, the Chickahominies demanded to be styled 
Englishmen. 

"The young Princess received instructions with docility, 
and soon in the little Church of Jamestown, which rested 
on rough pine columns fresh from the forest, she stood 
before the font that out of the trunk of a tree had been 
hewn hollow like a canoe, openly renounced her country's 
idolatry, professed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was baptized." 
And shortly after, in the same little rustic church, which was 
kept daily adorned with the wild flowers that graced 
the neighbourhood, " she stammered at the altar her marriage 



22 Homeward Bound, 

vows." Her care for the settlements while a mere girl, her 
heroic and successful effort in saving the life of Captain 
John Smith, her marriage, the birth of her son, her visit to 
England and reception at Court, her womanly and discreet, 
not to say refined behaviour, and her untimely death as she 
re-embarked at Gravesend to return to Virginia, are more 
than twice-told tales in American households. 

Many Virginia families with laudable pride claim 
descent from this romantic attachment, this " childe of 
tenne yeares old, which not only for feature, countenance and 
proportion much exceedeth any of the rest of his people, but 
for wit and spirit the only nonpareil of his country." 

Her granddaughter became the wife of a Captain Robert 
Boiling, and his daughter in her turn of Richard Randolph, 
grandfather of John Randolph, of Roanoke, a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence. Flemings, Gays, Eldridges, 
Murrays, and others born of the " Old Dominion/' are 
said to inherit the blood of the Indian beauty and of Pow- 
hatan, the great chief of the many tribes, whom Warner 
describes, we think, with more prejudice than justice to 
Captain Smith as " an able and crafty savage — but he 
was no match for the crafty Smith, nor the double dealings 
of the Christians." Such we fear is still the embarrassment 
of the poor, cheated, friendless and despised Indian race. 
When invited to visit the settlement of Jamestown to 
receive presents from King James, the answer of Powhatan 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 23 

was characteristic of savage majesty : "If your King has 
sent me presents, I also am a King, and this is my land. 
Eight days will I stay to receive them. Your father is to 
come to me, not I to him, neither will I bite at such a bait." 
Importations of the gentle sex, the embryo mothers of 
the nation, are recorded. Sixty arrived upon one invoice — 
" young, handsome and well recommended for their 
virtuous education and demeanour. With them was sent over 
the several recommendations and testimonials of their 
behaviour that the purchasers might thence be enabled to 
judge how to chuse. The price of these wives was stated 
at 120 pounds of tobacco, and afterwards advanced to 150 
pounds." Grants of land were given not alone to the 
planters, but as well to their wives, " because in a new 
settlement it is not known whether men or women be most 
necessary." In an older settlement the question was solved 
in these words, "It is not good that man should be alone." 

" For contemplation he and valour formed, 
For softness she and sweet attractive grace, 
He for God only — she for God in him." 

The spirit of Sir Walter Raleigh hovers over these 
historic scenes. " The soldier, the sailor, the scholar, the 
courtier, the orator, the poet, the historian, the philosopher, 
whom we picture to ourselves sometimes reviewing the 
Queen's guard, sometimes giving chase to a Spanish galleon, 
then answering the chiefs of the country party in the House 



24 Homeward Bound, 

of Commons, then again murmuring one of his sweet love 
songs too near the ears of her Highness's maids of honour, 
and soon after poring over the Talmud or collating Polybius 
with Livy." 

Mr. Bancroft, the picturesque historian of his country, 
thus sounds the praises of this illustrious Englishman : 
" The name of Raleigh stands highest among the statesmen 
of England, who advanced the colonization of the United 
States, courage which was never daunted, mild self-possession 
and fertility of invention insured him glory in his profession 
of arms. * * * No soldier in retirement ever expressed 
the charms of tranquil leisure more beautifully than Raleigh, 
whose sweet verse Spencer described ' sprinkled with nectar,' 
and ' rivalling the melodies of the summer nightingale.' 
He united in himself as many kinds of glory as were ever 
combined in an individual." "His good friend, Prince 
Henry, described him in his imprisonment tf a singing bird 
in a cage, rather a philosopher than a captive, a student in a 
library, than a prisoner in the Tower." A natural tender- 
ness of disposition frequently brought him into notice 
as a suppliant for others. When interceding on an 
occasion with the Queen(Elizabeth,)he approached her by say- 
ing he had a favor to ask. " When, Sir Walter," said she, 
« will you cease to be a beggar?" "When your gracious 
Majesty ceases to be a benefactor," he replied. In a wager 
with the Queen that he would determine exactly the weight 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 25 

of the smoke which escaped from a pipe of tobacco, he 
weighed the tobacco, then the ashes. The queen readily 
granted that what was wanting in the prime weight must 
have been evaporated in smoke. When she paid the wager, 
she said pleasantly that she heard of many labourers in the 
fire that turned their gold into smoke, but Raleigh was the 
first who had turned his smoke into gold. " Considering 
the despatch of such variety of engagements * * one must 
be forced to seek how a man of so many actions should write 
anything, and one of so many writings should do anything." 
His was the inspiration and loyalty of purpose defeated 
over and over again by difficulties insurmountable at length 
to triumph in the colonization of Virginia. " I shall yet 
see it an English nation," he predicted, and he did. It was 
he who kindled the spark of adventure that has illuminated 
the progress and still directs the destiny of the great 
American Nation — " His fame," says Bancroft, '" belongs 
to American history" — upon whom rests the obligation to 
shed what lustre dull cold marble can contribute to the 
memory of one who was its rising sun, if it be but to illumine 
the clouded though not inglorious setting of his own. f 

t A memorial window has recently been erected by Americans in 
St. Margaret's, Westminster, to which Mr. Lowell has supplied the 
following inscription : 

"The New World's sons from England's breast we drew 
Such milk as bids remember whence we came ; 
Proud of her past from which our present grew, 
The window we inscribe with Raleigh's name." 



26 Homeward Bound, 

" I have not spared my labour, my poor estate and the 
hourly hazard of my life, but God has otherwise disposed 
of all, and now end the days of my hope." 

Before he reclined to lay his head upon the block, feel- 
ing the edge of the axe, said he, " it is a sharp remedy for 
all diseases." Being asked to accommodate his body to some 
more convenient posture, he replied, " what matters the 
body if the heart be right? 5 ' The executioner could not 
but hesitate in the performance of his office upon such a 
victim. "Strike, man, strike," said he, and in two 
blows he died an offering by a weak monarch to the extrav- 
agant pretensions of Spain, that too often had felt the fertile 
brain and mighty arm of the redoubtable though tender an^ 
gifted martyr. 

An humbler though not dissimilar spirit was Captain 
John Smith's, whose life was scarcely less free from adven- 
ture. Of him wrote a brother soldier of fortune — 

"I never knew a warrior yet but thee," 
From wine, tobacco, debts, dice, oaths more free. 

And yet another, "he would suffer want rather than borrow, 
and starve sooner than not pay." 

If Raleigh kindled, it was Captain John Smith that 
continued to supply the fuel. If the one was the founder, the 
other was the saviour of the settlement of Virginia at a 
critical period, at least, of its existence. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 27 

"His deliberate enterprise and cheerful courage diffused 
light amongst the general gloom." And now we are descend- 
ing the Bay through every Creek and River connecte'd with 
which this indefatigable labourer and warrior had shoved his 
little three-ton shallop, and a map of which he completed as 
interesting at this day as when first published.' ' 



The hollow Oak, our palace is ; 

Our heritage the sea.— tl Cunningham." 



Should any unbeliever in the application of the text that 
introduces this chapter be disinclined to let go his top gallant 
halliards in acknowledgement of the Divine right of the 
Briton to the sovereignty of the seas, let him turn to the 
illuminated pages of history, should material considerations 
be more likely to direct his judgment than the heroic achieve- 
ments of bygone times, a few instances of which will be 
found in the appendix an incomparable navy may 
convince him of six hundred vessels, from which there are 
at present in commission two hundred and nine, measuring 
four hundred and ninety thousand tons, carrying fifteen 
hundred guns of heavy calibre, and manned by thirty thous- 
and men, ready for service. 

" Ubique, quo fas et gloria ducunt." 
Or the significant little red ensign of commerce flutter- 
ing wherever iron and timber can bear it upon the vexed 
surface of the ocean, or the repose of port and anchorage 



From the Cliesapeake to the Mersey. 29 

decorating the peaks of no less than 41,348,984 tons of 
shipping in and out of the United Kingdom last year (1880,) 
irrespective of its missions in other directions, and supple- 
mented by 17,387,079 tons of foreign transporting 
merchandise, of the value of £697,650,000 or $3,488,250,- 
000, the trade of the colonies being in addition £327,165,- 
000 or $1,635,825,000. 

We can further call his attention to forty thousand 
fishing vessels, manned by 134,500 hardy and available 
seamen, meandering round the little invulnerable islands, 
and still we have for him a reserve of more than four thous- 
and vessels of a pleasure fleet, actually upon record, includ- 
ing five hundred steamers — a hundred owners in which 
have voluntarily passed the Board of Trade examination, 
and have been supplied with certificates of competency as 
masters — flitting about like the snowy sea-gulls around 
her cliffs and exhibiting the burgees of their clubs far in the 
frozen Arctic, the balmy tropics, East and West, North and 
South, wherever upon the watery globe adventure or 
caprice may allure them. 

The value of this contribution toward the defence of 
these little isolated but pretentious Isles may be estimated 
by a quotation from the historian Camden. "But so far 
was this invincible Armada from alarming the sea coasts 
that the English gentry of the younger sort entered them- 
selves volunteers, and leaving their friends and families did 



30 Homeward Bound, 

with incredible cheerfulness hire ships at their own charge, 
and in pure love to their country, joined the grand fleet 
in vast numbers." 

And to a man of courage, who loves freedom of action 
and has the capability of conducting or the desire to 
acquire the skill necessary to enable him to direct her 
movements, there are few enjoyments the world can yield 
to be compared in intensity with the possession of a yacht 
of dimensions to supply as well the ordinary comfort of 
elbow-room as to remove as far as may be the possibility of 
accident, inseparable from occasions that will beset the 
wanderer upon the trackless ocean. 

Seconded he should be by a crew of thoroughly respectable 
well trained men, for in the confinement inalienable from 
the size beyond which she may become a care and a 
burden, any suspension of the "entente cordiale" must be 
inimical to the enjoyment, as incapacity either in direction 
or effective execution may be disastrous to the safety of all 
concerned. 

The superlative degree of pleasure can only be secured 
by perfection in appointments. The vessel herself should be 
unexceptionable in form and seaworthy qualifications, not 
incapable of winning a cup occasionally, though well 
designed to carry her spars through any freak of trial to 
which she may be ordinarily subjected in a lengthened 
cruise, and that with sufficient gallantry to relieve ladies 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 31 

from nervous apprehension ; for enjoyment unshared by those 
of one's household is poor compensation for the absence it 
may entail. 

The officers should be uniformed without excessive 
display in lace and buttons, and the men neatly and com- 
fortably accoutred for fair weather and foul, all actuated 
by the " noblesse oblige" of yachting servitude. It is as 
well the fittings be designed to afford the greatest comfort 
without unsuitable adornment. The steward's requisite- 
simple, and wanting in characteristics that would provoke 
regret should they be subjected to the peculiarly fatal eccens 
tricities of his department. Ornaments are admissable of a 
description that in their fitness can be made fast without 
depriving them of their mission or exposing them to damage. 
Stores may be selected with a regard to the usual economies 
of a household, not omitting innocent luxuries. A fairly 
though not of necessity curiously selected wine locker is 
desirable, providing that indispensable beverage for distribu- 
tion upon occasions of special hardship, or when it may be 
fitting acknowledgement of arduous duties gallantly 
performed, or indeed as a daily contribution to the comfort 
of poor Jack, who will be all the better man for it, and who 
will look with kindlier feelings upon the enjoyment of the 
cabin if his modest needs be suitably provided. 

The owner, in his department, holds the key to the 
situation. A due consideration for his officers and men, an 



3 2 Homeward Bound, 

inexorable fidelity to the strictest discipline and faultless 
cleanliness, a system well-arranged in all its details for the 
daily work of the vessel, rigidly enforced, will secure all that 
may be desired. Jack soon takes the measure of his master, 
and. the degree of respect he entertains for him, and his 
service is estimated by the strictness and impartiality with 
which he is treated ; his training teaches him that the first 
is indispensable, and due consideration for his comfort insures 
his eternal friendship, and though humble it may be, there 
is none more sincere or more enjoyable in the every day 
routine of life afloat. 

Thus housed and thus caparisoned, oh, favored of the 
Gods ! go forth upon the bosom of the Ocean without fear 
and with a manly heart. Do not hesitate shivering upon the 
brink, laving your feet, as it were, in the delicious liquid, but 
hesitating to avail of the bliss awaiting you • the plunge 
once made, the apprehensions vanish • the swimming lesson 
once learnt will never be forgotten. Take with you those 
who are nearest and dearest, for without them your trem- 
bling pennant will be continually looking back to the isle 
of home you are leaving. Carry with you your "Lares et 
Penates" your "Aras et Focos" You will enlarge the hearts 
of the little ones to an extent that books can never 
accomplish, and your temper will not be as easily soured 
when you return to the haunts of anxiety. Milton says 
somewhere : 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 33 

11 Solitude is sometimes best society, 
And short retirement urges sweet return." 

A word as to the dangers to be encountered at sea. A 
hundred to two hundred ton schooner, well equipped and 
well handled, is the safest craft that can carry you. The 
earliest visitors to America ventured often in vessels of very 
small tonnage. Sir Humphrey Gilbert's " Squirrel " was 
of but ten tons — smaller than the life boat upon the decks 
of modern steamships. Gosnold and Pring's vessels, the 
" Discoverer " and k ' Speedwell/' were of twenty-six and fifty 
tons respectively; and the great navigator, Sir Martin Fro- 
bisher, commanded vessels of thirty and twenty-five tons. 
William Baffin discovered and explored the bay that bears his 
name, so well-known to Arctic wanderers in a craft of fifty 
tons. The " Speedwell," of the New England settlements 
was of sixty tons, and the " May Flower," a large vessel for 
her time, one hundred and eighty tons. Some of the fleet of 
Columbus were not even decked, and Captain Newport's 
fleet mentioned in our introduction was made up of three 
vessels, the " Susan Constant," one hundred tons, the i( God 
Speed," forty tons, and the " Discovery," twenty tons, 
and in these vessels one hundred and forty-four passengers 
and crew were transported. 

Half the accidents indigenous to the sailors life are 
due to the hurry-skurry of monster steamship steeple 
chasing. These huge leviathans, overgrown and frequently 



34 Homeward Bound, 

ill designed, weighing with their cargoes thousands. of tons, 
are driven by thousands of horses power, sometimes it has 
been into each other, as often into ice, upon rocks or ashore, 
but more frequently into mountains of solid blue water which 
a schooner would bestride safely and comfortably when 
"hove to" with graceful motion and comparatively dry 
decks. In the modern trader, sea-worthiness of form is sacri- 
ficed to speed and carrying capacity, although every precau- 
tion is adopted she is driven through fog and uncertainty, 
and consequently danger, because you, it may be, gentle 
reader, will have it so, you will not take passage except it 
be by a steamer that will make a rapid trip, and owners will 
not provide and cannot afford to provide what is unprofitable 
even though it be perfect immunity from accident. 

The yacht is sailed upon other principles. When it is 
found to be dangerous or uncomfortable to urge her she is 
put to rest like a gull upon the stormiest water, and awakes 
refreshed when the gale is over and stretches her wings to 
pursue her wanderings. She never makes a mistake, is im- 
plicitly obedient to her commander, and unlike the 
horse and rider, accident through her agency is impossible, 
she is ready at all times, though feminine, to obey her lord 
and master, and to submit to his caprice uncomplainingly, 
and mistake, if mistake there be, is none of her doing. 

And ye, "one stranded gossamer" gentlemen come out 
from soundings and their revelries, throw away your 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 35 

faded flowers and come with us to gather fresh ones. 
Come across the Western ocean in the wake of the 
"Henrietta" and her gallant owner, who has done so much 
for yachting in this country. Sever the ties that bind you 
to earth for a short time and contemplate the sea and sky 
from the decks of your own vessels, taking the humours of 
old ocean as she may be pleased to receive your attentions. 



Fair laughs the morn and soft the zephyr blows. 

While proudly riding o'er the azure realm 

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, 

Youth on the prow and pleasure at the helm. — u Gray." 



MONDAY, JUNE 20TM, 1881. 



A twenty minutes drive brings us to the wharf where last 
adieux are to be spoken, on this occasion not unaccompanied 
by anxiety inseparably and involuntarily associated with 
the God-speed of affectionate relatives and friends for 
the safety of those about to engage in the not very 
common undertaking of a trip across the north Atlantic in 
their own schooner. The gig is at the wharf. The oars 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 37 

tossed. The bowman's boat hook the last fetter to be re- 
leased. « Good Bye ! " " God bless all ! " "Bon voyage ! " 
We step into the stern sheets. " Shove off ! " " Down oars ! " 
<« Give way ! " and in a few moments we have reached the 
gangway of our much loved " Nathalie " that with after can- 
vas set and anchor " short stay peak" lay like a fretful 
greyhound in the slip. Mr. Selwyn hands us the manropes, 
the steward stands by to take charge of small parcels, wraps, 
&c, the children previously despatched hail us with en- 
thusiasm enlivened by the novelty of the occasion. The gig 
comes handsomely aboard, Mr. Selwyn comes aft, touches 
his cap, reports " All ready, sir ! " and receives his orders 
to " Get under weigh ! " 

The yacht lay riding to a westerly wind. The windlass 
is manned, the pawls respond to the music of the fiddle, 
and as the anchor comes home up go jib and fore 
staysail which are sheeted to windward, there is a 
moments stern board, she moves handsomely round 
upon the starboard tack, the sheets are trimmed, and 
met with a lee helm, she steadies as she points to the 
Lazaretto. A last waive from every handkerchief, some 
moistened with tears, a parting gun, and at eleven o'clock 
A. M., we glide past Fort McHenry, and our voyage has 
begun. 

While running down the river we may as well describe 
the "Nathalie," as "Wanhill's " last and most perfect achieve- 



38 Homeward Bound, 

ment. A schooner of two hundred tons, not altogether 
intended for racing, though ready to account for herself in 
this way should occasion arise, her spars are now however 
<< razeed " to cruising proportions, and she sails under work- 
ing canvas, but her exquisite form can, at short notice, be 
fitted from her sail room with a suit of " Lapthorn," a glance 
at which would consign "Worth" to the despair of impotence. 
She is rigged as an English racing schooner, carries two 
square headed gaff topsails, and sports a yard for a flying 
foresail when favoring breezes gently blow. A running 
bowsprit of the " Hildegarde " type carries her head sails, 
she shows pure copper well up her bends, and a figure head 
an image of her mistress cunningly wrought in bronze, 
caressed by the laughing spray as it plays about the stem, 
while warbling in her ear its ceaseless melody, superintends 
initial progress. Her decks are now lumbered with a 
steam launch, a gig and a dinghey, and a spar to be 
fashioned as required, by the carpenters handicraft, is 
lashed there as well to provide for unpleasant contingencies 
in his department. 

In trim she is far from her best, the stores and water 
necessary for a possibly protracted voyage depressing her 
beyond her ordinary burden. 

Below her fittings are comfortable as we can make them, 
consistent with our ideas of the fitness of things, and our 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 39 

modest capabilities as to taste. Her ship's company as 
follows : — 

Clew Garnet, Esquire, Owner and Master. 
Mrs. Clew Garnet. 
Loulie, 15 years. 
Frank, 11 years. 
Maud, 9 years. 
Latimer, 6 years. 
Jack, 2 years. 

Doctor Thrale, M. R. C. S. I. 

Bella, Nurse. 
Katinka, Maid. 

WATCHES. 

LARBOARD . STARBOARD . 

Mr. Selwyn, Chief Mate, Mr. Jocelyn Second Mate, 

Fatman, Boatswain, Chips, Carpenter, 

Johnson, A. B. Ryan, A. B. 

Lind, " Harris, " 

Taylor, " McElwaine, " 

Wyatt, " Carey, " 

Coffee, " Herron. " 

Robinson, Steward. Bates, Second Steward. 

Barton, Cook. Smith, Cook's Mate. 



40 Homeward Bound, 

The master maintains the most rigid discipline, both as 
to neatness of person and general routine, but the yoke is 
easy, owing not only to a rigorous selection and to that 
apprenticeship 'which yachtsmen undergo in the employ- 
ment of owners who will brook no laxity in demeanour, and 
whose ill -report would at once degrade an A. B. to the 
hard service of a trading vessel, but in the present case from 
no cringing timidity, but a respectable reverence for volun- 
tary servitude, a friendly feeling and thorough understanding 
engendered by long service, and the consciousness of many 
dangers shared and some victories achieved out of many 
hard fought encounters under the old racing flag of green 
and white. The owner holds a Board of Trade certificate 
of competency as master of fore-and-aft rigged vessels, and 
commands his own schooner. Since he passed his examina- 
tion, he has been playfully called " the Master " by his 
domestic circle, and the title will probably continue to be 
his until his log glass shall have run out forever. 

Mr. Selwyn has jockied many a flyer first by the flag- 
ship, and Mr. Jocelyn will, we have no doubt, in due time 
follow his example. The yacht sails under the burgee and 
ensign of the "Royal Western Yacht Club," of Ireland. 

As we approach Fort Carroll, the mammoth elevators of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad the most prominent 
objects left us of the city, fade gradually away, and the 
historic Fort McHenry over our taffrail yields to the no less 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 41 

renowned North Point, now opening under our lee. ' The 
prominent and casemated Fort Carroll resting in the fairway 
an unfinished example in granite of the discarded fortification 
of the past — marks seven miles from our point of departure. 
The Medusa-like beacon of the ■" Seven Foot Knoll," is 
the next object of interest upon our weather. The banks of 
the river, which is some miles wide, generally low but finely 
wooded, with now and then an elevated headland, and creek 
of peculiar beauty to break the continuity, present ever 
varying attractions. 

The Brewerton Buoy is reached shortly after noon, 13 f 
miles from our anchorage, and we have emerged from the 
Patapsco River and enter upon our descent of the Chesa- 
peake Bay, " the Mediterranean Sea of America," upon a 
course of about S. f W. 

Shortly after one o'clock the mouth of the Severn river 
is opened, and we peer* into its creeks through the trees to 
distinguish the stately "White Hall/' still the hospitable 
abode of the descendants of the Colonial Governors of 
Maryland, by whom we are proud to be recognized in 
acquaintance and kinship. Next the dome of the State 
House and the masts and spars of the training ships of the 
Naval Academy of Annapolis, the Capital of the State of 
Maryland, assert themselves upon the landscape. 

As we proceed reminiscences of the ever interesting 
original possessors of the surrounding territory are presented 



42 Homeward Bound, 

to our imaginations. We pass between the hunting grounds 
of the Mannahoacks, Chickahamanias, Nansemunds, 
Chesupiacks, Pawmunkees, Paspaheghs, Payankatankes, 
Cattawomen, Patawomecks, Pawtuxunts, Kaskarawaoks, 
Accomacs, and many other tribes once governed by 
Werowances or deputies of greater chiefs, most of whom 
were under the sway of the great Powhatan, who ruled over 
eight thousand miles of inherited and suborned territory, 
and thirty tribes of two thousand four hundred warriors. 
We leave astern in the upper bay, the country of the 
Massawomecks, the Tokwoughs, and the mighty but gentle 
Susquesehannoughs. A race of giants were they of the long 
nomenclature. {i The picture of the greatest of them, the 
calfe of whose legge waf three-fourth f of a yarde about, and 
all the rest of his limbes fo answerable to that proportion 
that he formed the goodliest man that euer wee beheld, 
one had the head of a Wolfe hanging in a Chaine for a 
Jewell, his tobacco pipe three-quarters of a yarde long, 
prettily carved with a Bird or Beare, or a Deare sufficient to 
beat out the Braines of a man. Their language, it may 
well befeem, their proportions, sounding from them as it 
were a great voice in a vault or cave as an echo." The 
only vestiges remaining are echoes of their language. Thus 
we pass the rivers Tuckahoe, Nanticoke, Pocomoke, Pianka- 
tank, Occoquan, Potomac, &c, &c, and the Susquehannah 
we leave behind to the north of the Patapsco. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 43 

Nor have features of the intermediate proprietors been 
obliterated. 

"Then shall our names, 
Familiar in their mouths as household words, 
Harry, the King, Bedford and Exeter, 
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Glo'ster, 
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered." — H en ry V. 

We came down the river with the counties of Baltimore 
and Anne Arundel on either side. We proceed between 
Kent, Queen' Ann, Talbot, Dorchester, Somerset, North- 
ampton, Calvert, St. Mary's, Lancaster, Northumber- 
land, Middlesex, Matthews, Gloucester, York, Elizabeth, 
Norfolk and Princess Anne, and we make our exit between 
Cape Charles and Cape Henry, all redolent of a certain 
lingering attachment to old associations and aristocratic 
lineage. 

At 8.30 P. M., we pass Windmill Point on the north 
side of the entrance to the Rappahannock River. 
The south horn, [Stingray Point,] named from the Trygon 
which in that locality near put an end to the wander- 
ings of the obiquitous Captain Smith. Our passage down 
has been as a flight through flocks of pigeons, so innumerable 
are the white cotton sailed schooners and sloops, working 
their ways upward to the city with their ladings of the riches 
of the farmsteads that gladden the two thousand miles of 
foreshore of this grand sheet of water and its important 



44 Homeward Bound, 

tributaries. These little vessels are splendidly handled, ex- 
cellent of purpose and fleet as arrows, and wide awake must 
be the commander and pilot of the lazy and cumbersome 
" Ocean Tramp " to direct her course in safety as she plods 
like a Triton among minnows up or down the placid waters. 
Here are decks awash under their rich green heaps of 
watermelons. There others bearing similar burdens of 
russet brown cantaloupes — still others filled with the bright 
amber wheats and yellow or pearly corn with deck 
loads in bags, all gorged from the overflowing cornucopias 
they have left behind them. As they reach upwards, the 
varied colours give them the appearance of chameleons in 
efforts to escape from some white-winged birds of prey. 

At 10 P. M., we are abreast of Cherrystone, famed for 
the flavour of its oysters, which have lain in widespread 
profusion beneath our keel since we entered the Chesapeake. 
Above us are the paths of the renowned canvas back duck 
as he flutters in his haste to the wild celery beds of the 
tributaries of the upper bay, while around us the tooth- 
some and much prized terrapin nourishes his uncomely 
form to tickle the palate of the epicure. 

The Doctor has been in his usual remarkable form all the 
way down ; at luncheon, a general laugh was occasioned to 
his chagrin. He asked the mistress, " What was the best jam 
known hereabouts?" One never can guess the answers 
he seeks, and as usual he supplied one, " Pot-home- 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 45 

make" — Potomac. He, however, received a Roland for his 
Oliver in that, " he would find upon consulting the cook that 
a galleypot would be much more in his way! " 

At 10.30, Cape Charles is abeam, and an hour later, 
11.45 P. M., Cape Henry light bears S. S. E. \ E., 
distance three miles, whence- we jibe upon the port tack 
into our first ocean course N. 62° E., after a splendid run 
from the Lazaretto of 146J nautical miles by log, in twelve 
hours and forty-five minutes, or as near as possible, twelve 
knots per hour throughout. 

And now all is quiet below, rocked in the cradle of the 
deep, and lulled by the musical ripple of the water, as it 
passes astern within a few inches of their ears, the little ones 
quaff of tired nature's sweet restorer. On deck, scarce a 
sound has been heard above the sport of the sea, since the 
reeling of the log, and the report of the officer of the watch, 
of "twelve knots, sir, " greeted the ears of the master, as 
he lolled upon the transom inhaling from 

— That weed 
That looks so neat, 
And smell' st so sweet. 

*f " When all things were made, none was made better 
than Tobacco ; to be a lone man's Companion, a bachelor's 
Friend, a hungry man's Food, a sad man's Cordial, a wakeful 
man's Sleep, and a chilly man's Fire. There is no herb like 
it under the canopy of Heaven." 

f Rev. Charles Kingsley. 



46 Homeward Bound, 

Reader, if such there be, have you ever shared with your 
horse the enjoyment he evinces when having left the road 
upon a hunting morning, he first feels the green turf 
beneath his feet and knows instinctively that it is to be a 
day of mutual bliss. Such enjoyment is ours, and such the 
spirit of our craft as she yields once again to the rolling 
surface of her native element through which she has to carry 
us during many a long day. She shakes the fresh water from 
her bends and with her second wind lays well down to her 
work, the first taste of the salt sea invigorating her with a 
vim for the voyage she now realizes has commenced in 
earnest. 1.50 A. M., Smith's Island shoals have gone 
astern upon our weather, and clear of the land are we. 

Loyal to the confidence reposed in him and in his judg- 
ment, by those of his household, the master remains on deck 
yet awhile, and glancing backward between the lights his 
thoughts wander to the scenes he has left behind, and years 
of labour chequered with many pleasant sentiments of 
memory. The genial kindliness of the men. The many 
charming attributes and unexcelled prettinessof the women, 
all the more indelibly impressed in a cheery hospitality, 
smiling like cultivated human flowers moved in the breeze 
of fashion by the hard trodden pathway of life. 

— Dear deluding woman, 
The jo)' of joys — 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 47 

The brightness of the city itself. The self-denying charitably 
disposed matrons quietly and unostentatiously contributing 
of their efforts, their time and their means to the 
necessities of their less fortunate sisterhood. The splendid 
munificence of its millionaires displayed in the many 
substantial bequests and presentations to be seen and felt 
broadcast throughout the city, adorning and enlivening 
it and its environs, distributing from the fountains of 
knowledge, gratifying and educating taste, consoling the 
afflicted, relieving the wretched, and wrestling with every 
conceivable ill that flesh is heir to, and reaching like 
u Pallida mors — pauperum tabemas, Regumque lurres." 

From the foot of the throne to the humblest of stations, 
the charms of the daughters of Maryland have penetrated 
to the fullest fruition of which natural attractiveness is 
capable, and one 

lt Queen rose of her rosebud garden of girls." 
came within the blighting influence of a soi-disant planet, 
who sought as Icarus to soar too near legitimate splendour, 
but his delusive wings melted in tl\e presence of truth and 
right, and he fell. Had she been left to bloom where 
nature had placed her she had been 

" In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls. 
Queen lily and rose in one : 
Shining out little head, running over with curls 
To the flowers and been their sun." 



48 Homeward Bound. 

A Duchess of Leeds, a Marchioness of Wellesley and a 
Lady Stafford have graced the society of the grandest, if 
not the most beautiful of capitals. Lady Stafford having 
already divided the cares and doubled the joys of a 
Baronet, Sir T. E. Bathurst Harvey. And humbler hearths 
have been gladdened beneath the cross of St. George, the 
"Nathalie's" burgee flutters over one of the best of the 
comely matrons of Baltimore. 

The natural appreciation of personal distinction apparent 
here as elsewhere, and becoming rapidly developed in the 
liberal use of military titles, of the universal "mister," 
and the scarce less ubiquitous "Honorable" ladies 

claiming their share as, Mrs. Secretary of State , Mrs. 

Postmaster General , Mrs. Secretary of War , &c, 

&c, the reassumption of crests, of liveries, and not the 
least of all, the sporting of the cockade, a meaningless 
bauble, bye-the-bye, without its symbolic significance, 
embolden us to claim for Maryland the honor of being 
the residence of the premier peer of America, the Right 
Hon. John Montee, 11th Baron Fairfax, of Oakbank, 
Prince George's County. 



The morn is up again, the dewy morn, 

With breath all incense and with cheek all bloom, 

Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn ; 

And living as if earth contained no tomb, and glowing into day I 



TUESDAY, JUNE 21ST, 1881, 



The starboard watch had come on deck at eight bells 
(4 A. M.), before the master shook himself from his reverie, 
and daylight breaking bright and clear, he descended the 
companion to snatch an hour or two's repose, before the stir 
in the childrens locker and other attractions should dispel 
such a possibility. At 6 A. M., the washing of the decks 
overhead remind us that the yachtsman's bath is ready, and 
we show up in scanty attire, to receive from hose and bucket 
their delightful douche. The boys have a very merry time of 
it, novelty lending its enchantment, and the days work of 
the cabin has commenced in earnest. 



50 Homeward Bound \ 

There is an old saying that it takes two hands at sea to 
look after a boy. It certainly is a difficult problem, the how 
to provide for his safety. One cannot trice up boarding 
nettings, as the vagaries of the main boom have to be 
considered as well as other conditions in connection with 
the working of the vessel, else, the difficulty would be solved. 

The boatswain entertains the elder boys for the present, 
in teaching them the various knots and splices; and the 
mother assumes the protectorate of the girls. 

Upon this bright and cheerful morning, enjoyments and 
blessings innumerable are concentrated into our little 
sphere. The bounding waves of the deep blue sea, career 
along in their laughing sport, scattering showers of pearls 
in lavish abandonment. The crisp and fragrant breeze so 
invigorating after the relaxing and poisoned atmosphere of 
the pent up city, exhilarating as if charged with laugh- 
ing gas, penetrates into every air cell of the lungs, and every 
corpuscle of the blood. The blue sky and feathery 
cirrus, yield contrast to enhance each others beauties. 
And the vessel, of the most perfect object of man's crea- 
tion, perfect herself. The exquisite beauty of her moulded 
form. The milk-white and spotless decks with their 
faultlessly drawn whiter seams delineating plan and shear, 
swelling into curves of beauty as they descend to the 
section of greatest beam, and gradually approaching each 
other as they rise to the apron of the stem. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 51 

The bright varnished mahogany companion ways and 
skylights with their burnished brass fittings contrasting so 
successfully with the purity of the decks. The yellow taper- 
ing masts, stretching a hundred and twenty feet upwards, 
topped with the little restless burgee supporting their 
burdens of unsullied canvas in complete repose. The 
officers in their blue and gold, the men in graceful and 
well cut white, with cuffs and rolling collars of blue, straw 
hats with lettered bands, and pipe -clayed slippers, all clean 
shaven each to his fancy, presenting a variety of feature 
and expression, each face in itself a benediction, to inspire 
the genius of an artist, and gladden the heart of a philan- 
thropist. And then the " placens uxor" with if possible 
reanimated beauty and heightened charms. The bairnes 
wild as deer in their superabundant health. The cheery 
Doctor, friend and counsellor. The faithful Bella, mother's 
mate, we may call her on shipboard, to the children, and 
familiar from their first breaths with their stormy sorrows 
and stormy joys. And what shall we say of Katinka, the 
maiden of eighteen, coy and pretty, though prudent withal, 
revealing her true feelings toward the pick of our crew by 
studied avoidance and snubbing, tearing the poor honest 
fellow's heart to tatters while breaking her own. The per- 
sonification of Moore's Irish Maidens' with 

— "The sweet wild briary fence, 

That warns the touch, while winning the sense, 
Nor charms us least when it most repels." 



52 Homeward Bound, 

If you can imagine and appreciate all these, reader, then 
share our bliss and thankfulness. 

A smart constitutional tramp, a few sights for longitude, 
and the master reads family prayers to which all on board 
the "Nathalie " have free access, as it may please them, and 
the savory smell from the stewards department anticipates 
the breakfast bell. As we press to the meal, a general rash 
to the table to save imaginary imminent destruction of 
crockery is barely frustrated by the steward, our passengers 
being as yet unfamiliar with the protective purpose of a swing- 
ing table, designed to adjust itself and its burden to the move- 
ments of the vessel. The cant of the ship as she lay over to 
her canvas, presenting to the uninitiated, an ocular illusion 
that had nearly resulted in deficiencies in the pantry. It 
would have done a city matron good, to have seen the 
appetites that were satisfied this first morning at sea, 
and the steward looks as if anxious already, as to the 
sufficiency of his supply of fresh provisions. 

The Doctor distinguishes himself after breakfast, a school 
of porpoises close to the yacht, affords amusement to the 
boys, who pop at them with their mimic rifles, effective 
weapons when directed to the purposes for which they 
are designed, no doubt, but harmless when pointed to larger 
game. Whether our distinguished disciple of y£sculapius 
had visions of porpoise flesh for luncheon or not, has not 
been ascertained and probably never will be, as he is now 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 53 

dangerous to approach upon the subject. Certain it is he 
disappears from the deck mysteriously with Mr. Selwyn and 
emerges with a regulation Martini-Henri rifle, and having 
knowingly inserted his charge and rested his piece against 
the topmast backstay, he waits for a favorable rise, 
embraces an opportunity and simultaneously with the report 
appears sitting in a dazed condition upon the deck looking 
for his piece, which has disappeared overboard. Unfamiliar 
with the usage of such weapons, he had not made allow- 
ance for its propensity. The master while waiting, sextant 
in hand, upon the sun's convenience to attain his altitude, 
recounts a story a propos of the medicos discomfiture. 

After a hard day's duck shooting with a friend, he 
entered the Railroad Station of North East, [Philadelphia, 
Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad,] about midnight, to find 
a dozen men dozing round a red hot stove. One of the 
gentlemen seeing the well filled bags and accoutrements, 
thus expressed himself, " Been gunnin ? " " Yes ! " After 
a considerable pause, during which he had time to, and 
probably dreamt the rest, he continued half in soliliquy : 
(i Wal, the wust kick I ever had was from an old Kintucky 
muskit, when I fired her off, she knocked me down, and 
from that moment to this I never see that muskit!" 
Having delivered himself of which marvelous narrative he 
again relapsed to slumber. The Doctor fails to see the 
similarity to his case, and expresses in strong language his 



54 Homeward Bound, 

sense of contempt for the narrator. More disposed is he to 
give credence to another story illustrating the ready wit of 
a fellow countryman, even in uncongenial circumstances. 
Not long since, in Baltimore, several steamers of a trans- 
atlantic line were lying at the piers of the Baltimore & 
Ohio Railroad, their names terminating in " 'more," 
half a dozen overwrought fellows were eating their frugal 
breakfasts, sitting in a row under shade of the shed, after 
working upon them since the dawn. Says one, " What's the 
name of thim steamers?" Well, says the knowing one of 
the party, " There's the Thanemore and there's the Rath- 
more, that's two is'nt it? and there's the — the — " at a 
loss to remember the next. " Why dont you say the " No 
more" at wanst, man? said a comrade, eliciting the 
usual laugh. . Young or old, well circumstanced or ill, 
unhappily generally the latter, the Irishman is a perpetual 
baby, as the priest who, censured by his Bishop for too 
much levity, elicited a smile of forgiveness in replying : 

11 Is it lave gaiety 
All to the laity, 
Cannot the Clargy be Irishmen too ? " 

The Medico will add his contribution. An Irish actor 
of well deserved repute appeared before a Dublin audience 
in a pair of white duck pantaloons that had not very recently 
been acquainted with a laundress. Being of rather hasty 
temper, the Dublin "gods," as the inhabitants of the upper 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 55 

gallery are called, loved to torment him. Just as he was about 
to give expression to a passage of more than ordinary effect, 
he was greeted from the celestial regions with « I say, Barney, 
when did your ducks last take to the water ? ' ' The actor was 
completely lost in the scene that followed as he shook his 
fists frantically toward Olympus in a towering rage. 

At noon we are in 38° 40' north latitude, 72° 28' west 
longitude, 130 miles from Cape Henry. The Gulf Stream 
carrying us to the northeastward about two knots per hour. 
The beautiful kittywakes [" Larus Tridactylus"~] follow us 
in great numbers, picking up such morsels from the cook's 
department as may be thrown overboard to suit their appe- 
tites. These birds follow us closely all the way across, but 
when near the opposite coasts, seem to give way to a larger 
and a coarser bird [Larus Canus,~] what they do with them- 
selves at night it is hard to say, as they must have a long and 
fast fly of it to pick us up if they sleep upon the water. We 
have known them washed on board and killed during a 
gale in the dark hours. It is likely that scattered as they 
are over the face of the waters, they appear as does the small 
boy to a row, when daylight discloses a readier source of a 
meal than the foraging prospect entailed in the absence of 
a vessel. We pass close to several fine three-masted 
schooners, and one or two coasting steamers during the 
afternoon, bound to the southward, the fine ' ' Decatur H. 
Miller," of the "Merchants' and Miner's Transportation 



56 Homeward Bound, 

Line," amongst the number, steering for the Chesapeake, 
her decks alive with tourists. 

The boys come up with their fishing lines and squids in 
pursuit of blue fish, but the pace is too fast for the amuse- 
ment and the master knows better than to waste a fair 
twelve knot breeze while he has it, as the result of wilful 
waste at sea is as sure to bring woeful want as ashore ; no 
luff therefore this time boys or shortening sail to come 
down to your four knot amusements. 

The day lingers on, a day of great enjoyment, gradually 
it fades into evening and such a sunset, the whole western 
sky in a blaze of splendour of ever changing and brilliant 
colours,, and in the sheen of the sun we notice for 
the first time a solitary vessel transformed, as it were, into 
gold, that seems to be pursuing her course upon a river of 
silver radiance into a gorgeously haloed archway, the portals 
of Heaven. We linger on deck to a late hour, loth to lose 
the last ray of such enchantment. 

We have musicians in our crew, and occasionally while 
cruising, we improvise an entertainment on deck and 
encourage an occasional yarn from some one or other of 
the men who are allowed to stand around and con- 
tribute as they may be invited to the general fund. We 
have never found it to be abused, and if the owner and his 
crew understand each other, it never will be. This evening 
we open our course, Ned Johnson is our fiddler, and criticised 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 57 

from a nautical standpoint it would be hard to find a better. 
A hornpipe from Herron is a thing one does not see every 
day, and to Johnson's " Jacks the Lad," he excels himself, 
if possible, this evening. Tom Ryan is our tenor as well 
as the wit and life of the crew. The Doctor's bass is 
always delightful and the men adore him as much for this 
as his ever ready interest in their concerns, to night his 

" When they carved at the meal 
In their gloves of steel, 
And drank the red wine, 
From the helmet barred," 

rang out with splendid effect, the sea rendering its applause 
to the refrain. The master reads for the men a true narrative 
from family records : 

" GALLANT NAVAL ACTION." 

The story is told in the language of the young hero himself, 
aged 24 years. 

The following is an account of the capture of the 
"Clarissa," of Martinique, after a most severe action 
fought by Mr. William , of the City of Cork, a passen- 
ger on board. Mr. Justin McCarthy, Mate of the 
"Clarissa," and a mulatto against a prize crew of ten, one of 
whom was killed and three wounded. 

The " Clarissa" sailed from Cork for Martinique, 14th of 
May, 1795. On the 6th of June, in the morning, we espied a 



58 Homeward Bound. 

sail in the N, E., we were then in latitude 27° N. and longi- 
tude 32° W., she gave us chase, and by ten o'clock came 
within gunshot and gave us one, and four more before we 
rounded to for her, she was a republican schooner, called the 
"Bee d'Ambase," mounting three 24 pounders, 30 swivels, 
and carrying 80 men. She was one of a squadron that 
sailed from Rochfort on a secret expedition, and from which 
she parted in a gale of wind . They were destined to guard 
the Port of Cayenne. They boarded us, took the captain 
and six men on board and put their first lieutenant, a 
marine officer and eight men on board of us to take charge 
of the brig. The mate was left on board to condemn the 
vessel, Mr. O'Brien a fellow passenger, very bad, a 
mulatto and your humble servant. The first shot she gave 
us I took the pistols and cartridges out of my trunk and 
secreted them, and told Mr. O'Brien, the captain and mate I 
would retake the vessel or die in the attempt. The schooner 
took us in tow and kept us so for thirteen days. We were then 
very near Cayenne. The schooner then left us to look for 
a pilot to take the brig into port. About four hours after she 
left us I went into my stateroom loaded my pistols and 
divided the cartridges and got all ready for action I went 
to Mr. O'Brien and told him we were going to begin, he 
begged we would defer for three or four days and then, 
perhaps, he would be able to assist us. The mate and I 
were hot, and it was not easy to make us put it off; however, 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 59 

we did to oblige him. The third night after, which was 
Saturday, the 21st of June, we had just assisted Mr. O'Brien 
to bed, the mate went upon deck and I sat ruminating upon 
the business I wished would go forward. I knew we wanted 
but one day more to put us into an enemy's port. I called 
Mr. O'Brien, I asked him, well, sir, what would you 
wish should be done? must we lay this business aside 
entirely or push it forward ? He asked me what could two 
of us do against eleven, for he was sure we could not trust 
the mulatto. I told him I meant to put no confidence 
in him, but to bring him into action and then if he deceived 
us he should be one of the first we should shoot. At this he 
seemed a little hurt, thinking we had no intention of the 
business, but made a handle of him that we might say that 
only for him we would have retaken the vessel, and said, 

16 Mr. O the subject is a very improper one to talk of 

to a man in my situation." I replied, "certainly it is, but 
we did not wish to do it without your concurrence." " He 
then said, " I do not care what you do." I did not speak 
another word to him until after the action. I went upon 
deck, it was ten o'clock, I asked the mate was he ready, the 
answer was "yes, by G — ." I then told him to call the 
mulatto. He called him from amongst the Frenchmen, 
and went down. When I saw all clear on deck I went down 
also, the mate had secured the lieutenant's cutlass. I then 
asked the mulatto whether he wished to go to Cayenne with 



60 Homeward Bound, 

the Frenchmen, for they had made him a citoyen and had 
promised to do great things for him. He said he would 
rather go to Martinique. I then told him he must stick by us, 
he said he would. I gave the mate one of my pistols and half 
my cartridges, kept the other myself and the lieutenant's 
cutlass, for I was still doubtful, so brought him up unarmed. 
The mate spoke very good French. I desired he would tell 
them that they must surrender the property and themselves 
prisoners. They were all in a cluster on the after part of the 
quarter deck. We both went aft and we told them our inten- 
tion, that if they surrendered quietly we would not hurt one 
of them, and would treat them well ; but if they did not, they 
must take the consequences. They hardly gave us time to 
finish when we were surrounded by the ten, and they began 
a stout resistance. As the lieutenant sprang forward at the 
mate, I lodged the contents of my pistol in his jaw. The 
marine officer sprang at me, the mate gave fire at him but 
missed him, we were then in the middle of them and both 
our pistols discharged, the mulatto unarmed, but thumping 
away at them at a terrible rate. I called to the mate to 
load again. We were just in the act when the lieutenant, 
springing forward a second time, wounded as he was, the 
mate struck him with the barrel end of the pistol, shivering it 
in pieces. The lieutenant, a stout strapping spirited fellow, 
did not mind the blow, was in the act of overpowering the 
mate. This was all done in half a minute after we fired first, 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 61 

and I was loading my pistol when I saw what was going on 
between the mate and lieutenant. I made at him with the 
cutlass, struck him over the left side of the head and made 
him desist. The stroke made him acknowledge a God whom 
he had made a scoff of a few minutes before. I then wheeled 
round with the cutlass on those that came to his assistance, 
and we drove them all off the quarter deck. I then loaded 
the pistol again, and they rallied with handspikes, empty 
bottles, the cook's axe and everything they could find. I 
went three steps to meet them, fired, and shot the marine 
officer in the right leg. I called to them immediately on my 
firing, and told them I had five pistols more, and if they did 
not retreat and go below, I would fire again ; they believed? 
and I loaded while I was talking. As soon as I was loaded, 
I told the mate to take the cutlass and offer them quarter if 
they went down immediately. The answer he got was a blow 
on the breast from a spar eight feet long from the lieutenant, 
so that he could not come near any of them with the cutlass. 
When he received the blow, he made over to me and the 
lieutenant after him. I put the loaded pistol into his hand 
and took the cutlass and the remains of the broken pistol — in 
order to see if I could find the barrel and lash it to again — 
with which he wheeled round upon the lieutenant and he 
retreated forward again. I called to the mate not to shoot 
him, but try if he would take quarter, and he kept the mate 
in talk while I was looking for the barrel of the pistol. 



62 Homeward Bound, 

The marine officer came aft with a handspike to strike me, 
though he was wounded in the leg. I saw him coming, but 
was determined to receive the stroke, though the mulatto 
was armed with the cutlass. I did not think it would be 
prudent to put him between me and the stroke lest he might 
be knocked down, the cutlass then would fall into their 
hands. I desired him to stand by and do as I bid him — he 
did. I held my left arm up to break the stroke from my 
head. It was so violent that it beat down my arm and still 
came so severe upon my head that it made fire fly out of 
my eyes, and laid my arm open. As soon as I received the 
stroke, I told the mulatto to spring forward, he did, when 
the fellow was lifting for the second stroke, and laid his 
right arm open, it dropped and he staggered forward. In 
the meantime, the lieutenant and the gang, when they saw 
me receive the stroke, pressed on the mate, he fired and we 
ran to his assistance and beat them back again. He missed 
wounding any of them with that shot too, however, I soon 
loaded again. The lieutenant and two men took to the 
rigging in the hopes they would escape the balls that flew 
forward, and in expectation that we would expend our 
ammunition, but they were mistaken, for when I loaded the 
pistol, I told the mate that every shot they obliged us to 
give we must drop a man. Whilst we were consulting on the 
quarter deck, and offering them quarter and good usage, the 
lieutenant saw from the shrouds the marine officer going 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 63 

below, he called him coward, and told him to remain and 
they could have the vessel yet. He told him in return it 
was impossible to stand, he was so much wounded and had 
lost so much blood. The lieutenant answered he was wounded 
worse, for his head was laid open. The marine officer 
again replied, what can we do against three armed men ? 
The lieutenant said " no, coward ! they had but two pistols 
at first, one was broken upon my head, and after they fire 
the one they have, if we push them close, we will have her 
yet." The mate understood him and called to me for the 
pistol. I gave it to him. He ran forward and took the 
opposite side of the rigging to that which the lieutenant was 
in. I was surprised that he should quit the deck with the 
only pistol we had, so called to him to come down 
immediately, and not to fire his pistol until he joined me. 
The lieutenant called upon his citoyens to surround the 
rigging below, he would stand the shot and they could cut 
him off from me. They flew to the station. The lieutenant 
attempted to come down, McCarthy was as nimble as he and 
was down as low as he and presented the pistol. The 
lieutenant ran up two or three ratlines again, thinking 
McCarthy would fire where he stood, but he was as quick as 
he. Th^ lieutenant then stopped to talk with him, the 
. . -.1 got was from the pistol. McCarthy and I thought 
he was not wounded, he came down so nimbly, upon which 
McCarthy called out, " stand by, that fellow is coming aft to 



64 Homeward Bound, 

you ! " I answered, " I am ready for him." With that I ran 
forward to receive him with the cutlass. I was just going to 
give the blow, but on the man's walking from me, I kept 
my arm back. He went to the boat, leaned on his arm and 
then lay down quietly beside me and never spoke more. 
We then, after two more were wounded bore them down 
below, fastened the hatches, and shaped our course for 
Martinique. When all was cleverly to rights, I had the 
w r oimded men called up, stopped the blood for the night, 
and in the morning dressed them with lint and a poultice 
of flour and water boiled. It was nineteen days from the 
time we took the vessel until we arrived, we very 
fortunately fell in with nothing. Had we been taken again 
you would have had the honour of having one of your 
family guillotined by the French, for killing one of their 
republican officers. However, do not think that daunted 
me. If I were in the same situation to-morrow, I would act 
in the same manner. On our arrival, the captains of the 
men-of-war came on board to see the three brave fellows 
that brought nine French prisoners into port and killed one. 
We used no treachery with them. We did not kill them 
when asleep. I shuddered with horror when one of them 
asked me did we shoot them when asleep. (( No. we gave 
them fair play and were sorry for what was 
necessary for us to do." 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 



65 



We all turn in, tired after our first day's experience 
at sea, the good ship rolling up steadily her twelve knots 
before a brisk whole sail westerly breeze upon smooth water 
with undeviating regularity. 






" A strong northwester's blowing Bill, 
Hark ! don't you hear it roar now ; 
Lord help us f how I pities them 
Unhappy folks ashore now." — " Pitt." 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22ND, 1881. 



The rmrning breaks as a morning should after such a 
sunset — brilliant sunshine and brilliant breeze. 

u If the sun in red should set, 
The next day will be free from wet ; 
But if the sun should set in grey, 
The next will be a rainy day." 

Such is supposed to be a sailor's prophecy, but we have 
never heard it from a foremast Jack, though frequently 
abaft. 

Our course N. 63° E. we lay like a steamer. The wind 
freshens with' a tendency to come out from the north- 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 67 

west, and as the barometer seems to be unsettled, we 
prepare for one of those short but sometimes lively blows 
to be experienced during the summer. The master lets her 
carry all she will as long as she can, and wide-awake she 
is as she sends the water hissing through the scuppers, 
chuckling under us as she thinks of the dismay occasioned 
in the women's quarters. At noon she has made 290 miles, 
and we find her in latitude 40° 15' north, and 67° 50' west 
longitude, course N. 63° E. The spin drift is too much for 
the feminines, who begin to feel a little uncomfortable. 
Meanwhile we skoot along the eastern margin of St. 
George's bank, merrily ! Oh, so merrily ! 

The children amuse themselves in preparing a document 
in regular form detailing our whereabouts and circumstances, 
to be enclosed in a bottle and thrown overboard. 

The Doctor relates a story told by Sir Duncan 
McGregor, once of the 31st Regiment, who was on board 
the " Kent/' East Indiaman, when she was destroyed 
by fire in the Bay of Biscay, and who, as soon as the fire 
broke out, hastily wrote a few lines describing the condition 
of affairs, which he placed in a bottle and launched over- 
board. Four years later, when quartered with his regiment 
at Barbadoes, during an early morning walk on the beach, 
he observed something floating towards him, which, upon 
closer examination, proved to be the identical bottle he had 
thrown overboard under such distressing circumstances. 



68 Homeward Bound , 

The master adds another — Captain D'Auberville, in the 
Barque " Chieftain," of Boston, put into Gibraltar on the 
27th of August, 1851. With two of his passengers he 
crossed the straits to Abylus, on the African coast. 
When about to return, one of his boats crew picked up what 
was supposed to be a piece of peculiar rock, on closer 
examination, however, it was found to be a cedar keg, 
completely encrusted with barnacles. Within the keg was 
found a cocoanut enveloped in a kind of gum or resinous 
substance. Enclosed in this nut was a parchment covered 
with strange writing which proved to be a brief report 
drawn up by Columbus, in 1493, of his discoveries up to 
that period. 

In 1852 a bottle was thrown overboard 1500 miles at 
sea from a vessel bound from Thurso, in Scotland, to Canada, 
this was recovered some months afterwards within two 
miles of the port from which the vessel had sailed. 

Captain Becher, many years ago, published a chart of no 
less than one hundred and nineteen bottle voyages ; and 
later in 1852, another of sixty-two instances of similar 
solitary wanderings. 

The uncomfortable condition of the decks this evening, 
and the uneasy motion of the vessel, disarranging customary 
routine, our after dinner social chat became more than 
ordinarily prolonged, and exhilarated into quite an inter- 
lude in exchanges of wit and anecdote. A few of the 
current stories may, perhaps, bear repetition. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 69 

Poor W , drowned at sea on his way home to 

England invalided, upon his first introduction to Baltimore 
Street, in 1872, was struck by the, to him, unusual appear- 
ance of a hearse with its plate-glass panels and exterior 
adornments. Seeking its purpose from a policeman near by, 
who was doubtless a Hibernian, he ascertained " that it was 
a vehicle in which ladies and gentlemen now and then 
reclined while taking short drives into the country.' ' His 
insular prejudices at once found vent in exclamations 
unfavorable to the ultimate destiny of a nation addicted to 
such palpably luxurious habits. As he occasionally acted as 
correspondent for some home publications, their readers 
probably sympathized in his prophetic denunciations. It is 
needless to add that his experiences soon became more 
profound and he frequently narrated the occurrence with 
frank disinterestedness. 

Lt. Col. H. , while passing from Digby to Yar- 
mouth, N. S., engaged in writing in the cabin of the little 
steamer, looked up from his paper for a moment, and was 
struck with the attitude of a plethoric, seedily dressed 
individual, snoring open-mouthed close beside him. A 
newspaper lay open upon his lap, the significant title of 
which was " The Christian at Work ! " 

Major , on receiving a telegram from a friend while 

in India, announcing his having been selected for decora- 
tion with the C. S. I. (Companion of the Star of India,) 



70 Homeward Bound, 

replied by the same medium of communication, <( thank 
you/' but wishing to avail of the full number of words (six) 
allowed in a message, added, " twinkle, twinkle little star." 

Last winter, at Halifax, a gentleman rather elevated 
from the effects of recent too liberal potations was thrown 
from a street car platform into the deep surrounding snow. 
He was immediately seen to strike out manfully with all the 
grace of an accomplished swimmer, accompanying the 
movements with the energetic expulsions of air from the 
lungs incidental to the act. He had in his abstractedness 
scarcely recognized that the element with which he believed 
himself to be contending had not yet emerged from its 
wintry repose. 

A certain gallant soldier serving in our Eastern posses- 
sions, from the marvelous nature of his narratives, had 
attained the soubriquet of "Jung Sing Sahib," or the 
"Liar Chief," such a one as our old friend Horace would 
dub " splendide mendax" A late Governor General 
admiring his neatly shaped boots which had been obtained 
from the chief of London makers, enquired of him where 
he had obtained them. The officer replied, naming a certain 
bazaar in Calcutta. Pressed for the address of the maker 
there, he answered, " I'm sorry to say, your Excellency, that 
he died last night ! " 

One more. At Zowa, during the late Afghanistan 
campaign, Major H 's, Mountain Battery was ordered 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 71 

upon an eminence to cover the advance of the 85th Regi- 
ment while crossing an intervening valley to an attack upon 
the enemies works, upon an opposite crest. While anxiously 
watching the bursting of his schrapnel in the works so as to 
cease firing before the advancing column came within reach 
of its desolating mission, a little white fox-terrier appeared 
in the range of his glass, trotting along unconcernedly before 
the regiment, pursuing the erratic investigations peculiar to 
his species. 

The night closes in grey and "ugly" wind freshen- 
ing and sea rising. At 10 P. M., the master, anxious 
for his spars, reduces sail, and his saucy craft submits with ill 
grace as he clips her wings. An hour later, as there is 
no longer doubt of what we are destined to catch, he strips 
her, and toggling on the foretrysail, hauls her to the wind 
not a moment too soon. 

At three bells (1.30 A. M.,) the heart is out of it, and 
he lets her have close reefed mainsail and fores taysail, and 
watching for a smooth lets her off once more upon her 
course on which she flies like the scud, her speed quickened 
and arrested in that peculiarly agreeable alternation as 
she mounts upon the crest or sinks into the trough 
of the undulating and restless sea. Towards day- 
light, the wind has removed its spell and the sea is going 
down; she is shaken loose once more, and "up topsails!" 
rings out again. Beyond occasional demonstrations of 



72 



Homeward Bound, 



malade de mer with accompanying characteristics, no com- 
plaints have come from below, and at breakfast the 
steward pulls a longer face than ever, hinting his apprehen- 
sions as he says, " thim's the last of the kidneys, " sir. 



u The drying up a single tear has more 
Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore." — "Don Juan." 



THURSDAY, JUNE 23D, 1881. 



In the gale of last night we had our first mishap, and 
poor Ryan is the sufferer. In toggling the trysail to the 
foremast, it was his province to clip the sheet blocks to the 
cringle of the clew, while putting a mousing on the clip- 
hooks, the bunch broke from the grasp of Herron, catching 
Ryan's head and hurling him with violence against the 
launch, breaking his leg and generally knocking him in a 
heap. The Doctor spent the night with the poor fellow, 
and he is so much better this morning that the children are 
with him in the forecastle helping with their prattle to 



74 Homeward Bound, 

lighten his tribulation. Sailors are proverbially fond of 
children, their life is one of severance from domestic 
association, and familiarity readily engenders attachment 
for the little ones. 

Another cheery day, the barometer 30° 3 having been as 
low as 29° during the puff, all are life again on deck and 
hearty. At noon, we have made 230 miles, notwithstanding 
that we were hove to for near three hours, and find our 
vessel in 42° 50' north latitude and 62° 50' west longitude, 
course N. 63° E, running under Nova Scotia, distant 140 
miles. 

We feel very uneasy about Ryan. The Doctor will not 
say much, but keeps moving in and out of his quarters with 
the consideration he would show to a Duchess. The wind 
hauls into the north but continues to blow steadily, and 
nothing could be pleasanter than our surroundings had we 
not a besetting anxiety like the sword of Damocles hanging 
over us ; in other respects we have been favored plentifully, 
especially as regards weather. Unlike Lord Byron, uncle of 
the poet, who, although recognized as an experienced naval 
commander, was most unlucky, his ill-fortune pursuing him 
so far as that he was never known to have had even a 
fair wind, except upon one occasion when he had such a 
superabundance as to have blown his frigate from St. 
Johns to Cape Clear under bare poles in three days. 
This, we should add, is tradition as far as we are concerned. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 75 

We show our number and destination to a White Star 
Steamer in the afternoon, bound into New York, and ask 
him to report us, which he answers with the affirmative flag, 
and immediately runs up the signal (H. Q. J.), « you will fall 
in with ice if you go beyond (F. K. Q.) 45° N.," in acknowl- 
edgement of which we dip our ensign. The master is on 
deck to-night on the look out for Sable Island, lest his 
calculations should by any possibility be incorrect ; our 
course should keep us thirty miles south of it. 

We occupy ourselves in recalling some amusing features 
in connection with the nomenclature adopted for the 
different surroundings on shipboard. Beginning with the 
ladies, we find several on board, including some variety 
and peculiarity of description. There are 

Sister Kelsons, 

Sister Blocks, 

A Taunt, 

A Wind Lass, 

A Wind Gall, 
and then there are 

Fair Leaders, 

Fashion Pieces, 

Cross Pieces, 

Meta Center, 

Miss Stays. 
The last named, fortunately not a frequent visitor, for 
she never appears but as the sailors Nemesis. Her presence 



76 Homeward Bound, 

turns everything into disorder and confusion, and the whole 
progress of the ship is arrested and placed in irons. 
The ladies are fairly supplied with ornaments, in fact with 

blocks of jewels, also 

Watches and Chains, 

Rings, 

Ear-Rings, 

Brooches, 

Sprays, 

Garnets, 

Crowns, 

Pendants. 
The rude sex are of course to be found where the gentle 
are in such numbers and assortment. There are among 
others, two brothers of Miss Stays, very steady and indus- 
trious hands, quite contrasts to their sister, 

Jack Stays, 

Bob Stays", 

Jack Block, 

Jack Yard, 

Jack Staff, 

Jack Screw. 
There are several Davitts, several Pawls, Martin Gale, 
and Jack Cross Trees, and there are several known only by 
nicknames, 

Cross Jack Yard, 
Cross Jack, 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 77 

Cross Pawl, 

Handy Billy, 

Monkey Rail. 
Then there are besides, yeomen, rakes and swains, and as a 
natural consequence, gammoning, hearts, whiskers, waists, 
cheeks, lips and laps, partings and wales, carryings away, bolts 
and preventer bolts, splicing, marrying, chapelling, berths, 
cradles, sisters and buoys, for whose amusement there are 
whips, tops, hoops and boats, and as punishment is inevitable — 
lashings. 

Household requirements are supplied with a lavish hand. 
First there is quoin, then houses, boarding, aloft, 
frequently balconies and galleries, companions, messen- 
gers, servings, beds, pillows, bolsters, quilting, sheets, 
needles, pins, thread, thimbles, harpins, awnings, 
fenders, aprons, bunting, bibbs, bows, bonnets, stays 
caps, collars, hooks and eyes, eyelet holes, yokes, 
ribbands, wear, spencers, tyes, hoods, shoes, lacings, 
yards, bands, viols, plates, gorings, meshes, nettings, cloth? 
spindles, scarfs, knots, seams, shears, shifts, stools, chairs, 
sweeps, jam, puddings, seasonings, washboards, &c. 

A butcher s shop is supplied with several qualities of mate. 
First mate, second mate, often third and fourth mate, the 
doctor must have his mate, sometimes the boatswain his 
mate, the carpenter, the gunner and even the cook him- 
self, their own several mates. There are goosenecks, 



78 Homeward Bound \ 

sheepshanks, plates, ribs, saddles, shanks, tails, skins, horns, 
blades, chines, bitts, livers and lights. Of Fruits and Vege- 
tables the selection is not large, still there are plumbs, 
hawse, leaks and peas. Of Fish — wales, dolphins, sole, 
gudgeon, ro.ach, flukes and crabs. Of Birds — rails, crane, 
foul, ducks and boobies. Of Animals — dogs, hounds, rats, 
mouse, horses, monkeys, camels, bears, foxes and hogs. 
Letters may be implied from the fact of their being two 
posts daily — the stern post and thejrudder post. Insects 
and reptiles, too, are plenty in this promiscuously in- 
habited ark — bees, flies, creepers, roaches, worms, leeches, 
snakes, chintzes, beetles, lizards. Drinkables are not sup- 
plied with the consideration due to creature comfort ; 
we only know of ' port ' and a beverage called 
'swig;' there is plenty of salt water, in fact "water, 
water everywhere, but scarce a drop to drink." 
There are amusements such as fishing, horses, drags, 
drivers and drives, stables, mangers, bridles, saddles 
and stirrups. There are many means of restraining 
excesses, we cannot find a police man, unless the cook's 
mate can be called a "peeler," from his habitually 
acting in the capacity upon potatoes ; but the real thing 
is not there, in fact it is not likely he would long survive 
it, but there is somehow " clubbing" without him, and for 
serious misdemeanours, chains, shackles, irons, seizings, 
gratings and cats. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 79 

The Doctor congratulates himself that his services 
with those of the Parson are more implied than suggested, 
but the master is down upon him, and see what a 
catalogue he brings about his ears — shivers, shakes, seizings, 
of all kinds, falls, bites, worms, gripes and gripings, 
gorings, chafings, leeches, draughts, stretchers, crutches, 
long legs, short legs, seasickness, as implied in reaching and 
even fore-reaching at times. Now master, he exclaims, 
" you are done as you have come to far fetching," but he- 
has put his foot in it worse than before, for some of his 
delinquencies become apparent. There are " stiffs," 
"wakes," " bitter ends," " shrouds," "dead reckonings," 
"dead eyes," " wales," "partings," and " many ends," 
"but master there are heelings," "there are Doctor and 
bills." Strangest of all, there are not many ropes, con- 
trary to what is supposed, on shipboard; there are the 
buoy rope, bucket rope, tiller rope, foot ropes, man 
ropes and ridge ropes. Of music we have not been 
deprived, as we have a < horn,' a i trumpet,' < fiddles,' 
and the ' spider band.' 



There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, 

To keep watch for the life of poor jack." — lt Dibden." 



FRIDAY, JUNE 24TH, 1881. 



The Doctor has passed a second night with poor Ryan, 
and depresses us inconceivably with his apprehensions 
that internal injuries of serious import may at any moment 
develope themselves. The poor fellow is perfectly con- 
scious and asks continually for the children. The carpenter's 
shop has been fitted up for him as comfortably as 
circumstances admit, and the mistress lends her invaluable 
aid, good nurse and comforter-as she is, assisted by Bella, 
and Katinka whose distress betrays a tenderer emotion. 

While at breakfast, Mr. Jocelyn knocks at the saloon door 
and reports whales, sir !" In a moment every seat is vacant, 
capital views are had of the monster of the deep, plunging 
and blowing in his gambols close under our lee, and the 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 81 

children have their fill in the reality of their picture book 
representations. We were soon destined for another diver- 
sion. 

At six bells (11 A. M.,) the lookout reports "a dis- 
masted vessel broad on the weather bow," which we presume 
to have been caught napping and to have been stripped in the 
blow of the morning of the 23d inst. We keep up for her in 
the hope that if necessary we may be the means of rendering 
assistance to our weather-tossed relatives of the sea. Half 
an hour brings us under her stern, whence we can barely 
read her name, the "Eclipse," of Halifax, N. S. She 
appears to be a barque of 450 tons, timber laden and much 
weather worn. No answer having been made to our hail, 
the gig is lowered, and with two hands, the carpenter, Mr. 
Jocelyn and the Doctor, the master pulls alongside. A chop- 
ping sea made it difficult to get aboard, as a sluice of water 
rolled over her from side to side ; they, however, jump into 
the fore chains and after a thorough survey fail to find any- 
thing of interest beyond the fact that she had been long 
deserted. Her decks had begun to yawn and she was fast 
becoming water logged, so we continue our course rejoicing 
that no record of suffering had been found on board. Had 
her cargo been of a less buoyant nature, the master would have 
scuttled her, as such obstacles on dark nights are the " snags " 
of the ocean, and present opportunities for serious collisions. 
A torch would only have released the timber to become 



82 Homeward Bound, 

distributed, thereby multiplying the dangerous obstacles. It 
is to be hoped she may be driven ashore before she becomes 
disintegrated, and thus salvage and safety be alike assured. 
Capital observations place us at noon in 43° 36' north, 
latitude, and 58° 20' west longitude, distance run 245 miles 
wind N., course N. 67° E. Warned by the White Star 
report, the master now keeps her to the eastward so as to 
avoid ice if possible or meet it in clear weather, and our 
course is altered to N. 90° E. Towards the evening the 
wind hauls to the northeast, and we are " full and by," our 
first experience since leaving of a contrary wind. It 
freshens towards night to a double reefed mainsail, whole 
forestaysail and jib, dousing the foresail. With too much of a 
lee helm, we take the bonnet off our working jib, the one we 
carry at sea being so fitted to save hacking our cruising 
canvas as much as possible, and her tiller as it should in 
perfection gives just the taste of a weather. 



11 Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither at the North winds breath ; 

And stars to set : but all 

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Oh, death ! " — Mrs. Hemans. 



SATURDAY, JUNE 25TM, 1881. 



The worst has passed and poor Ryan has paid his 
debt to nature. At midnight the mistress comes noise- 
lessly into the saloon and beckons the master, whispering 
"he calls for yon." " Your hand is pleasant to feel, 
sir," he says to the master, "though it be for the last 
time. Our next cruise, sir, will be a long one, and I 
trust we shall be shipmates : we shall want no light, sir, 
in the binnacle, and — and — God bless you — sir, and the 
mistress," a sigh, a gasp, and he has gone to his promo- 
tion, and every eye pays the homage of a tear. Thus 
surrounded by the affection of hard-fisted comrades, and 



84 Homeward Bound, 

the gentle solicitude of female tenderness, enhanced many 
degrees by the peculiar association of life afloat ; its suc- 
cession of dangers mutually encountered and pleasures 
shared, a general sympathy born and nurtured by long 
companionship, passed away a life whose log is a recapitu- 
lation of duties faithfully performed and now and always 
cordially acknowledged, u Le plus brave de les braves." One 
who, somehow, was always at the point where fitness was 
requisite and courage indispensable. If a rapid change 
of jib, in a gale of wind, was for a moment retarded by 
some fouling of the traveller, Ryan was at the tack 
relieving the difficulty, deluged in the solid blue water. 
If " in topsails " was delayed by a hitch in the sheet, it was 
Ryan's voice that bellowed from aloft " lower away ! " 
Alow or aloft, afloat or ashore, he had the ingenuity of 
turning up where his services were most needed. Coming 
down rather late one night in a certain seaport, and 
nearing the gig, the master was attacked by half a dozen 
roughs, intent on robbery, or horse play, his whistle soon 
brought the boat's crew to his assistance, and it was Ryan's 
brawny arm that was foremost in laying them out like ten 
pins in a bowling alley. He was the master's coxswain, 
and much attached to him, and under his occasional in- 
struction was making considerable progress in navigation, 
and would soon have been able to have passed as second mate. 
He was fortunately unmarried, and on our approach to 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 85 

our home port, " the girls on the tow rope" will be 
largely represented in special devotion to him. 

At noon we are in 43° 30' north latitude and 54° 30' 
west longitude, and record the worst distance yet accom- 
plished, 170 miles. The day is passed in mourning for 
the poor fellow who has been taken from amongst us, 
the deck is deserted, except by the watch, for all, both 
fore and aft, are heartily unstrung. 



11 The lightest wind was in its nest, 
The tempest in its home, 
The whispering waves were half asleep, 
The clouds were gone to play. 
And on the bosom of the deep, 
The smile of heaven lay. 
It seemed as if the hour were one 
Sent from beyond the skies, 
Which scattered from above the scene 
A light from Paradise."— "L. E. L." 

SUNDM, JUNE 26TM, 1881. 



The day begins with a pleasant breeze, a flowing sheet 
and a calm sea, a tribute of nature to the sad duty before us. 
At six bells (10 A. M.,) the church flag is at the peak, the 
ship's bell rings for service as usual, which the master reads 
on deck, that all hands, watch included, may partake of its 
holy influences so peculiarly grateful to-day. 

At noon we are on the tail of the grand bank of New- 
foundland, in 43° 30' north latitude and 50° 30' west 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 87 

longitude, distance 170 miles, course made good N. 90° E. 
The wind has been easterly and variable, and not much of 
it. At four bells (2 P. M.,) the flags are hoisted at half 
mast, the ship's bell tolls sadly, the vessel is hove to. The 
mournful procession emerges from the^forecastle, marching 
toward the gangway where the master, with open book and 
uncovered head awaits it, every occupant of the little 
craft clustering round. 

Poor Ryan's remains had been carefully and lovingly 
sewed up in his hammock, well shotted at the lower 
extremity, and are now reposing draped with the Union Jack 
upon a plank which is laid athwart the rail projecting about 
half its length overboard, but supported within by his 
special "chums." The master reads the beautiful service 
of the Church of England for the burial of the dead, more 
than ordinarily impressive in the novelty of -the surround- 
ings, and the universal sorrow of our little isolated world, in 
which there is not an eye but betrays the sincerest 
emotion. 

" I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he 
that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; 
and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never 
die." * * * 

"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall 
stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my 
skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, 



88 Homeward Bound, 

whom I shall see for myself, but not another." * * 

And as the sentence ' ' we therefore commit his body to the 
•deep," is concluded, the plank is raised withinboard and 
the sea has swallowed all that is mortal of our comrade, " to 
be turned into corruption looking for the resurrection of 
the body when the sea shall give up her dead." 

Towards evening the wind shifts to the southward 
and we are enveloped in a dense fog, clearing now and 
then to enable us to discern an unoccupied course before us. 



; And fear'st thou, and fear'st thou, 
And see'st thou, and hear'st thou ; 
And drive we not free 
O'er the terrible sea, I and thou." — " Shelley.' 

MONDAY, JUNE 27TH, 1881. 



We cannot imagine a position in which Mark Tapley 
would have been a more welcome guest than upon our 
decks this morning. Enveloped in a mantle of dreariest 
fog, which intrudes even to our very hearth, and not 
satisfied with dressing us in a shroud, accompanies its 
Nemesis like attendance with cold and dripping mois- 
ture, and to complete the misery, the indescribable 
melancholy and hoarse groan of the fog horn, in one 
prolonged note as we are on the starboard tack, 
conveys the dismal circumstances to every cranny of our 
little bark. The master, up all night, watches his thermometer 
for atmospheric and water readings, and continues about 



90 Homeward Bound, 

the deck. He carries all sail that his craft will bear/ 
anxious to drive her into clear weather as soon as 
possible, as he holds that to strike obstacles at a speed of 
five knots would be as effective, though not, perhaps, as 
summary as at ten or twelve; even contact with ice when 
hove to would be probably fatal, so that the best course is 
in the absence of actual warning of approximate danger, 
to shut one's teeth and let her go as quickly as she can 
be driven out of the quandary. 

No observations possible, the sun being obscure, but by 
dead reckoning we are in 44° 45' north latitude, and 45° 25' 
west longitude, distance to noon 220 miles, course N. 74° E., 
weather unchanged. At four bells (2 P. M.), we are blessed 
with an occasional glimpse of blue sky, and shortly after we 
drive quickly — almost abruptly — into fine clear weather, 
and leave our misery behind us. 

At 3 P. M. a large iceberg is reported on the lee bow, 
and the ship's company is all astir, the children wild with 
excitement, and well, indeed, they may be. At first glance 
it resembles the upheaval from some terrific subaqueous 
explosion, instantaneously congealed, towering upwards as 
it does from its smallest diameter at base, in sharp and 
diverging basaltic-like ridges of green glass to an over- 
hanging plume-shaped summit of snowy foam. Upon 
nearer approach, the rays of the departing sun; toying with 
its irregularity of surface, transform it into a monster but 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 91 

partially cut diamond. When we have it aboard, as 
close as prudence warrants, its majesty defies description • 
Niagara capsized and held in fountain-like action by 
superhuman agency, but in comparison of magnitude the 
mighty cataract is dwarfed into nothingness. Luly says, 
"a giant bunch of lilies of the valley." Our little craft 
seems like a froth flake, blown from its summit or a lily 
blossom from its garland. Its base fretted and worn by 
the continuous heave and wash of the sea, rends to tatters 
the liquid zone with which it is. confined, while from a 
gorge of ruptured glass, a hundred feet above, roars a 
cataract of limpid water, distributed as it falls through 
smooth-worn green fissures wrought in its sides. Upon an 
eminence, monarch of his surroundings, and weary with 
the cares and responsibilities of his crown, sits a white bear, 
anxious aud melancholy, his choice is clearly between 
suicide and starvation : poor fellow, we cannot' help him, 
his fate is inevitable. So we leave his isolated kingdom, 
our feelings of awe and admiration subdued by a sad % 
sympathy. We wish we could afford him a more sub- 
stantial consolation than that his solitary realm cannot long, 
if at all, survive him. 

The Doctor evidently contemplates regicide as a happy 
release from probably prolonged suffering, but his humane 
instincts are overbalanced by his fear of chaff if again seen 
rifle in hand. 



92 Homeward Bound, 

Towards sunset the wind becomes unsettled, veers to the 
eastward against the sun and the barometer exhibits signifi- 
cant symptoms. We are, however, ready, and our cabin 
occupants are inured to circumstances from the knowledge 
that they must in their helplessness make the best of what may 
be their fortune, and that enjoying the pleasures, they 
must submit to the inconveniences that may be their lot. 
About eight bells the swell increases, indicating some dura- 
tion of wind, but in what direction the irregularity of its 
motion effectually conceals. The pace of our little vessel 
increases, hitherto wafted, she is now driven with irresistible 
impulse to encounter forces evidently more intent upon 
their secret mission than consideration for any such trifles 
as should attempt to divert them from their purpose or 
challenge them to issue. As they move along, gradually 
obtaining regularity of motion, the seas hastily dress in their 
white mantles to greet the storm king in befitting array, 
exhibiting a sharpness of outline and briskness of motion 
and feature that the initiated comprehend. 

" That mystic spell 
Which none but sailors know or feel, 
And none but they can tell." 

The clouds that had been careering away to join the 
pageant, have gradually merged into an unbroken canopy 
of grey, contracting the horizon into unusual limits. The 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. . 93 

water assumes a deep leaden intensity of colour and virulence 
of weight. The wind carries into drift the tops of 
the seas as they comb over, as ashore she toys with tiles and 
chimney pots, but oh ! landsman, without conveying the 
injury to which your manly form is subjected. She merely 
bathes as she fondles us in pearly moisture, filling our lungs 
with richest elixir, but you who neglect to visit -her in her 
realms of play, she subjects to missiles of destruction. 

As the gale heads us, and we know it must come heavier 
every moment, we stow and make fast everything about the 
decks, house topmasts, run in bowsprit irons to the gam- 
moning, and under the foretrysail she stands as snugly as a 
seagull with head under his wing. The glass continues to 
fall, and at ten P. M., totters at 28° 10. The "roaring 
forties" are proverbially inhospitable and inconstant quarters, 
even in summer, though summer blows are not often very 
long continued or very serious to encounter when well off 
the land. 

At eleven P. M. there are fresh hands at the bellows, the 
gale continues to harden, with heavy squalls, shifting from 
southeast upwards, and becoming wickeder as it shifts. Mid- 
night, sea very high and squalls furious, spray blinding and 
side lights continually extinguished until we shift them to 
the after rigging, where they have a little better luck. 
Our little ship now and then puts head under a comber, 



94 Homeward Bound, 

and like a duck, throws the water over her decks, shaking 
her tail as she points her bill to the clouds. 

u Away, away, what nectar spray she flings about her prow, 
What diamonds flash in every splash that drips upon her brow. 
She knows she bears a soul that dares and loves the dark rough sea, 
More sail, I cry ; let, let her fly, this is the hour for me." 

At micjnight the master comes down dripping in his 
sou'wester, mackintosh and sea boots to look at his 
barometer, and finds the doctor in anything but a 
placid frame of mind, having had a discussion upon 
religious subjects with the mistress, and been as usual, 
worsted. "Ye gentlemen of England who dwell at home at 
ease," he exclaims, in reply to the master's greeting. (i Hello ! 
Doctor, what's tearing you now, old fellow? Has the mistress 
been trying to fit you out in stole and cassock, or has she 
invoked the wrath of the elements upon your erring soul ? 
You seem quite ennuye. 

"• Lusisti satis, edisti satis, atque bibisti ; 
Tempus abire tibi est — ' ' 

eh? Why dont you aspire to 

a That blessed mood 
In which the burden of the mystery, 
The heavy and the weary weight 
Of all this unintelligible world 
Is lightened." 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 95 

Let's freshen the nip with a glass of that wholesome 
beverage, that the proudest admiral in England's proud 
navy does not disdain. What shall it be, Scotch or Irish ? 
Or with your nautical propensities and contrary mood, 
shall it be rum? " Poteen, master, poteen, gra gal 
machree." The steward lowers the rack, the metheglin is 
poured out, the Doctor, with his usual "slainte," swallows 
the nectar and is seized with a violent fit of coughing, 
on recovering from which, he exclaims, to the general 
amusement, that u he feels as if a torchlight procession 
had marched into his lungs." " Now, Doctor," says the 
master, " what of the sneer with which you quoted 
Dibdin so inopportunely on my coming down stairs?" 
" I'd rather not master, I think the poteen has given me 
a lesson in the little incident that has occurred, at any rate 
it has exorcised the demon of contraryness, as you call it, 
with which you were pleased to charge me. I did feel like 
a southerly wind in the bread -locker, but now, like the 
jar of Pandora, when she replaced the cover." "What! 
Doctor, all your ills, gout, rheumatism, envy, hatred and 
malice, and all uncharitableness, all gone but hope, remember 
the tale she told." " Don't master, don't destroy the 
happy illusion, delicious it is if flattering, and for a moment. 
How's the glass? " "It hangs at 28° 10. No prospect of 
any favorable change at present, though it cannot well be 
lower than it is. It is now, however, blowing very hard 
indeed, and the sea is still rising." 



96 Homeward Bound, 

Doctor. — What force do you give the wind as it blows 
at present ? 

Master. — Something between eleven and twelve. 

Doctor. — How have these gradations been adjusted, and 
what do they represent ? 

Master. — Sir Francis Beaufort was directed by the Lords 
of the Admiralty to prepare a schedule or scale for the 
general use of the navy, which he did as follows : 

Calm. 6 Strong Breeze. 

1 Light Air. 7 Moderate Gale. 

2 Light Breeze. 8 Fresh Gale. 

3 Gentle Breeze. 9 Strong Gale. 

4 Moderate Breeze. 10 Whole Gale. 

5 Fresh Breeze. 11 Storm. 

12 Hurricane. 
The merchant service adhere to the old phraseology and 
generally ignore the figures. 

Doctor. — Is this blow of West India origin, think you? 
Master. — I should scarcely venture an opinion, except 
that it is rather an early hatching of so strong a bird. 
Of 127 hurricanes experienced in the Gulf of Mexico during 
a period of 354 years, the seasons of occurrence were as 
follows : 

January, 0. June, 4. 

February, 1. July, 15. 

March, 2. August, 36. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 97 

September, 25. November, 1. 

October, 27. December, 2. 

There is an old sailor's rhyme that fastens the seasons of 
their prevalence upon the memory, thus : 
June, too soon, 
July, stand by, 
August, lookout you must ; 
September, remember, 
October, all over. 
West India hurricanes are occasionally of peculiar viru- 
lence. In one experienced in 1780, large rocks were lifted 
from a depth of seven fathoms, and cast high and dry upon 
the shore. 

Doctor. — Within our own recollection, master, we have 
had elsewhere nearly similar experience. You remember 
Calcutta in 1864, October the fourth, the Bore rose to a 
height of thirty feet, ships were carried far away from 
the Hoogly river, and left dry and immovable. If I re- 
member rightly, more than a hundred vessels were lost or 
disabled, and some 60,000 lives lost. 

Master. — I well remember the circumstances, as well as 
a yarn told me in connection therewith by a partner in the 
most important mercantile house there. One of their tow- 
boats had disappeared altogether. Some two years afterwards 
colouring matter was observed to float upon the surface of the 
water in one of the tanks for the city's supply. Upon a 



98 Homeward Bound, 

thorough examination into the cause, my friend's tugboat 
was found in the bottom of the tank, the colouring matter 
had been generated in the brass journals and fittings of 
the engines. 

Doctor. — In 1866 Bermuda suffered dreadfully from a 
hurricane, six hundred houses were destroyed and some 
seventy lives lost with many vessels. 

Master. — In a Bore in the Rio de la Plata, the barque 
"Urgent," was carried from her moorings and left accord- 
ing to her master's account a mile or so from where 
she would float at high water. She was there sold for the 
ridiculous sum of some few hundred dollars, and when her 
master left, was undergoing transformation to a hotel, 
and the " ladies were riding round her." This I can vouch 
for as she belonged to my firm. 

The great storm that raged in England, 26th and 27th 
November, 1703, seems to have been unparalleled since. 
Immense devastation was occasioned. The loss in London 
alone was estimated at £2,000,000. The number of persons 
drowned in floods of the Severn and Thames and on the 
coast of Holland, and in ships blown from their anchors, was 
estimated at upwards of 8,000. Twelve men-of-war with 
1,800 men foundered off the coast. 17,000 trees in Kent 
alone were torn from their roots. The Eddystone light- 
house with Winstanley its contriver were destroyed. The 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 99 

Bishop of Bath and Wells and his wife were killed in bed. 
15,000 sheep in one flooded district were drowned. 

The elements sang a requiem throughout Europe upon 
the death of Oliver Cromwell, and Richard the Second's 
two queens brought fearful tempests to the shores of 
England. 

We are now in proverbially the stormiest quarter of the 
stormiest of seas, so distinguished, doubtless, from the 
natural disarrangement of atmospheric equilibrium, caused 
by the prevalence of ice and the juxtaposition of the 
warm current of the Gulf stream, and the frigid antagonism 
of the polar current. The accepted theory that winds are 
caused by diverse distribution of atmospheric temperature 
and the overflow, so to speak, of cool air into a region 
where expansion from warmth has created a partial vacuum, 
is ever likely to be exemplified hereabouts, but the shifting 
character of the present gale from the southward to the 
eastward, and still upwards, discloses the marked feature of 
the hurricane or cyclone in our hemisphere ; below the 
equator, its direction would be reversed. 

Doctor. — Of course while both air and water are in a 
state of unstable equilibrium, there will be winds in the one 
and currents in the other. 

Master. — The sea is still rising, Doctor, and is now at a 

» 

height rarely to be found at this season of the year. 

Doctor. — And yet, master, science teaches us, or rather, 



100 Homeward Bound, 

they who speak in her name tell us that waves do not attain 
a higher altitude from trough to crest than forty feet, and 
this off the Cape of Good Hope. Off Cape Horn thirty-five 
feet is said to be the next maximum, in the north Atlantic 
twenty feet, while in our channel nine feet is the limit of 
vertical motion. 

Master. — Notwithstanding the sea is said to break over 
the lanthorn of the Eddystone Lighthouse a hundred and 
fifty feet from its base, urged of course, to a great extent, by 
the speed at which the wave travels, which in the north 
Atlantic is said to be twenty-two miles an hour. 

I am diffident in placing my experiences before the 
judgement of careful and cautious men of science, neverthe- 
less, I shall not be readily persuaded that the north Atlantic 
at times during the winter cannot exhibit a tableaux in which 
a change of opinion would be wrought. I have, myself, 
watched the sea in a heavy gale for hours from a passenger 
steamer frequently topping above the fore yard, which 
certainly is more than fifty feet from the deck. 

A sudden sensation as of a drawn bowstring having been 
let go — a commotion, and almost simultaneously the master 
is up the companion ladder. " Forestay burst, sir !" " Look 
alive, Selwyn ! " « Cast off tiller rope tackle falls ! " "Aye, 
aye, sir!" " Let go weather trysail sheet!" " Ease lee 
sheet handsomely and stand by it ! " " Hold on all, for 
your lives ! " " Hard up with the helm ! " Loosed from her 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 101 

tether, the lively little craft wears round, we can only feel 
it as the spray is blinding and the night dark as Erebus. 
Her lee rail is buried, a combing sea catches her under the 
weather bilge, a deluge of water, a conviction that every- 
thing, masts and all, have been hurled overboard, and the 
vessel herself irretrievably engulfed in the confusion. Down ! 
down ! down ! she is impelled into the seething trough. A 
moment's trembling resignation, then pulling herself together 
and recognizing the rein of her jockey in the weather helm, 
she leaps away from her thraldom and bounds like a 
maddened charger down the wind into the invisible and tor- 
tured unknown, pursued by her tormentors. " Meet her ! " 
i( Meet her with your lee helm ! " « Steady-y ! " « Ease 
off trysail sheet handsomely!" " Well the sheet, 
belay ! " " Now then, a strop round the stump of the 
bowsprit! " " Slack up and unhook forerunner tackles! " 
" Lead forward under eyes of the rigging ! " [< Hook on to 
the strop!" " Set them up and belay! " The masts are 
saved and all hands aboard. The master holds a short consul- 
tation with his officers, and the ship is still running before 
the gale, making wonderful weather of it, though now and 
then a frightful sea looms high above her taffrail, growling 
and hissing with threatening purpose, but passing under in 
charitable mood, leaves a chasm of awful import into which 
we seem to glide stern first down a phosphorescent Alp, 
bound for the realms of Pluto, to be again raised like 



102 Homeward Bound, 

Eurydice, and once more committed to the deep, literally. 
The darkness is apalling, the demoniacal din like the laugh 
of furies rejoicing in our apparent helplessness. Our little witch 
of a craft somehow, with the coyness and tact of her sex, casts 
aside the rude attentions of her bearded and exasperated 
tormentors, and but once before the wind and sea has she* 
been dangerously sluiced with water which she soon emerges 
from under without casualty to crew or fittings as all are 
well secured to friendly and neighbouring supports. The 
risk of hauling the vessel to the wind again is not to be 
thought of before daylight discloses some safe opportunity, 
so long at least as she behaves herself so splendidly before 
it. 

The manoeuvre described occupied but a moment or 
two, though during such critical occurrences moments are 
considerably drawn out in imagination. It is on such occa- 
sions that a ready and courageous crew show the stuff they 
are made of; no laggards then, a second's indecision any- 
where, and consequences become serious, the skins of teeth 
are at a premium, for hands have full employment and 
brains too. It has always been our habit to be provided 
against possible accident ; thus with the trysail, ad- 
juncts for untoward circumstances are placed within reach, 
strops ready upon a becket, the watch tackle, where immedi- 
ately accessible, spare trysail sheets rove ready to hook into 
the clue, &c, and had we reason to have suspected any 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 103 

flaw in the stay, we should have had a preventer fitted, 
but on this occasion we were taken by surprise for the strain 
was not what it had been since we left when in a fresh 
breeze close hauled with topsails aloft. 

Ashore, a broken axle, a misplaced switch, a trivial 
irregularity would have been followed with certain 
destruction, while our difficulty, one of the most serious to 
be encountered at sea, but sharpened our wits and familiar- 
ized us with the necessity of nearness of nouse and quick 
decision and execution, and the storing up of these useful 
instruments for possible future occasions. Captain Marryat, 
in one of his charming stories, tells of a commander who 
impressed upon his midshipmen the advantages of utilizing 
their long and tedious night watches on deck by imagining 
themselves placed in every possible difficulty and studying the 
best and readiest way out of it, and he also recounts an 
occasion upon which a captured vessel repossessed by her 
crew was restored to her captors, as a direct result of his 
admonitions, by two mids in their teens. Selwyn with 
two quartermasters have their hands full as full can be at the 
tiller until daylight dawns in the eastern sky. 

It is strange to what freaks the mind is sometimes seduced, 
even in extremis, but while upon our beam ends in the trough 
of the sea one irresistible thought of the passage from the 
JEneid. 



104 Homeward Bound, 

u Facilis descensus Averni, 

Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis, 

Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras. 

Hoc opus, hie labor est." 

By four bells (6 A. M,j the weather is more moderate, 
squalls lighter. and sea less vicious. 



"Thou boundless sparkling glorious sea, 
With ecstacy I gaze on thee ; 
And as I gaze, thy billowy roll, 
Wakes the deep feelings of my soul." 



TUESDAY, JUNE 28TH, 1881. 



Nothing could be grander than the sight revealed to us 
by daylight this morning in the magnificent heavy roll of 
the dark blue seas, regular as the bights on a file, towering 
up into sharp summits, which break into foam over towards 
us, running down their breasts in milky streams, fantastic 
tracery and light green rivulets : on they come, in majestic 
stateliness, high as our cross trees, threatening the uninitiated 
with immolation, but only to bear us upward with the 
gentlest and most fascinating of all motions, as a father 
his child upon his shoulder, to lower us again with 
like tenderness, "the waters a wall unto us on our 
right hand and on our left," far down into a dark abyss, 



106 Homeward Bound, 

from which it would appear there can be no recovery ; the 
retreating roller however has really but relinquished the waif 
as a care to its no less considerate succeeding confederate. 
Danger has passed, the Vind and sea from antagonists 
have become allies, passing onward in accord and combining 
to create the most majestic as well as magnificent example 
of sublunary grandeur. One may experience feelings akin 
when wrapped in contemplation of rugged mountain 
scenery, but the monster rocks, however grand, are in 
repose, and yield not the spirit-stirring enthusiasm of 
motion, nor the entrancing sensations of progression in 
graceful curves over the fascinating terrors of the storm- 
tossed and restless ocean. 

Our damages, though not of a serious nature have caused 
us some delay. A jury forestay has been- tolerably well 
set up, and the runners having served their foreign purpose, 
are once more restored to their particular functions ; about 
the decks the injuries are inconsiderable, the weather rail 
is started from the tenons of the stanchions, and a plank 
or two in the 'lee bulwarks with a storm port shutter have 
disappeared. The dinghey is a little strained, but on the 
whole, considering the volumes of blue water that rolled 
over us, as we lay helpless in the trough of the sea, upon 
our beam ends, we have escaped marvelously. After 
breakfast we are enabled to give the yacht close reefed 
mainsail, forestay sail and bonne tless jib, and to keep her up 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 107 

once more a clean full and by as near as possible on her 
course. The only casualties below, were the tumbling 
about the nursery of two of the youngsters at once, 
and Bella's astonishment that they should both have come 
to grief simultaneously is amusing, so little do they know 
of our trials on deck. 

At noon, by dead reckoning, we find ourselves in 
44° 40' north latitude, and 44° 35' west longitude, having 
made but eighty miles during the twenty-four hours of a 
N. 75° E course. During the first dog watch we have the 
wind from the southeast, and with smoother sea and 
moderate breeze, we shake out reefs and away we reach N. 
66° E. In the evening topsails are again aloft, and we have 
fallen into the even tenor of our ways. 

In deference to poor Ryan's memory we have no music 
this evening. The master, instead, giving the men a short 
lecture opon the formation and mission of 

ICEBERGS. 

" They are born in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and 
are formed chiefly by glaciers, which extending into the 
sea, form protruding artificial coast lines, huge portions of 
which become detached from various causes, and floating 
into the Polar currents, arrive in situations where they make 
themselves more familiar to navigators, and in the North 
Atlantic to numbers of passengers moving to and fro 



108 Homeward Bound, 

between the old world and the new. We have had personal 
observation lately of their majesty and magnificence. 

These phenomena frequently attain enormous dimen- 
sions and extraordinary variety of outline. They 
have been seen towering into the air to the height 
of six to eight hundred feet in the shape of towers and 
pinnacles and fantastic sky lines, their sides wrenched by 
cataracts descending with deafening roar and their water 
line presenting a circuit of miles lashed by the waves of the 
ocean with a violence, creating uproar to be heard for 
miles. Sir John Ross measured a berg two and a half miles 
long, two and a fifth broad and one hundred and fifty- 
three feet in height, weighing by his calculations above 
water a hundred and fifty millions of tons, and above and 
below no less than fifteen hundred millions of tons. In the 
Greenland seas, in Baffin's Bay and Davis Straits great 
numbers are to be seen, on one occasion as many as three 
thousand in a day, and here in the Atlantic four hundred 
to six hundred have been seen at once. A well-known 
Atlantic steamship commander told the master he had upon 
one trip been enveloped in a fog for many hours and the 
cold becoming intense, and the fog so dense as scarcely to 
admit of his recognizing a man or object within a yard or 
two, he slowed down his vessel and ultimately stopped her 
entirely. After some time the fog lightened and soon 
cleared away, and he found his vessel completely surrounded 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 109 

by two hundred and fifty bergs, so close were they as to 
give him considerable difficulty in extricating his vessel. He 
attributed to Divine Providence the impulse communicated 
to him to stop his vessel, a rather unusual one, and is still 
puzzled to know how he could have got so far into their 
midst without accident. 

The whaler often seeks shelter under the lee of 
these masses in the violent gales occasionally to be 
met with during his peregrinations, and his water tanks 
are sometimes replenished from the pools of deliciously 
cool water and the limpid streams flowing as from the rock 
at Meribah from their sides. He hangs on to them when 
no bottom is within reach of his ground tackles, in doing 
which he incurs considerable risk. Calves or large 
masses are now and then dissevered, falling with great 
force into the water from above, and as frequently becoming 
detached from below rise with scarcely less violence. The 
"Thomas Hall" hanging to a berg in Davis Straits was 
struck by a calf and lifted sufficiently to show a consider- 
able length of keel abaft her gripe ; fortunately it collided 
with her in a rather invulnerable place or she must have 
foundered. 

In the spring and summer these objects are sources 
of great danger to vessels plying in the north Atlantic. 
Borne down by the polar current, they present ugly 
obstacles in the path of vessels, especially those driven 



110 Homeward Bound. 

through fog at high rate of speed, and it is feared that many 
of the unheard-of have contributed to the formation of the 
shallow water upon the banks of Newfoundland, supposed 
to owe their origin to the rocks and debris carried in 
suspension by these huge masses of ice from the place of 
their birth, and deposited by them in their dissolution in 
the warm waters of the Gulf stream. 

Of late the leading passenger steamers adopt Lieutenant 
Maury's lane routes, which direct their courses outward and 
homewards in parallel, but differing latitudes to avoid 
collision, and sufficiently to the southward to clear these 
dangerous though expiring monsters. It is unfortunate that 
the great circle or shortest route between Europe and 
America runs through these dangerous precincts as mariners 
are sometimes tempted to seek in the shorter route com- 
pensation for the dangers to be encountered. When 
afloat, one -tenth of the mass is all that appears above 
water, and when the proportions are disarranged by the 
melting of the submerged part or the severing of a large 
calf, the object assumes a change of trim exhibiting its 
load water line burrowed by the wash of the sea in 
extraordinary peculiarity of effect. Occasionally the 
berg capsizes with violence, to the imminent peril of the 
many fishing vessels constantly engaged upon and around 
the banks of Newfoundland and in their neighbourhood." 

The "Inman" company— the second in order of estab- 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. Ill 

lishment in the North Atlantic Trade — was the first to 
practically recognize the great importance of the lane 
routes, as it was the first to adopt iron in the construction 
of the hulls, and the screw as a means of propulsion of ocean 
going vessels; the first to extend the boon of steamship 
accomodations to steerage passengers, and the first to make 
the detour to Queenstown, as well for their convenience, 
as to offer substantial benefits in postal facilities to the 
Governments and the public upon both sides of the Atlantic. 
The era of fast passages was also inaugurated by this com- 
pany. The steamship City of Paris as far back as Novem- 
ber, 1867, having made the trip from Queenstown to New 
York in eight days, three hours, and one minute, and the 
same vessel in 1869 carried H. R. H. Prince Arthur to 
Halifax in six days, nineteen hours, and six .minutes. 
Always leading in the construction of larger vessels, and 
the adoption, regardless of cost, of methods towards the 
perfection of its system, it is the only transatlantic 
company to retain the symmetry and beauty of form it has 
always so jealously guarded, and which have in modern times 
been so generally sacrificed apparently to the belief that the 
lines of the original canal boat after long experience of 
more recent designs, present the true features of the ocean 
passenger steamship. This energetic record, be it said, has 
been achieved without government subsidy, and during 
many years in competition with heavily subsidized opposi- 



112 Homeward Bound, 

tion. If we may presume, we should like to offer the 
suggestion to the advocates in this country of state 
support versus private enterprise. 

But if the comparatively lean form of the fresh water 
carrier be out of place in a sea way, what shall we say of 
those ubiquitous monstrosities, the "Rover" and the 
"Tramp," unlike anything in Heaven above, or in the earth 
beneath, or in the water under the earth, as we shall one 
day fully realize when we shall be called upon to hand 
our obolus to old Charon. 

It is strange that the trade of the metal potter — aye ! and 
his material too, or something like it — and the skill of the 
tinsmith, admirable in their natural spheres, should have 
been symbolized in the construction of naval fabrics, and 
that employed heretofore in perfecting utensils for keeping 
liquid in, they should in the fulness of their genius be 
suggestive in the manufacture of vessels to keep it out. 

The naval constuctor may derive much in design however 
from the potter, the gradual rise of floor, the rounded bilge 
and graceful tumble home of some of his models are not 
unworthy of imitation in the harder metal and larger con- 
trivance ; and the skill and taste with which he is gifted who 
successfully moulds his porcelain clay, would not be out of 
place, if admitted generally into the larger field of naval arch- 
itectural design. Far be it from our intention to deny the 
existence of fully competent designers and builders, but 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 113 

with the disappearance of the sailing ship, sentiment seems 
to be vanishing and the dulce to be disheartened in the 
ruder competition of the utile; hence the builder must 
accept the situation and stifle the promptings of his genius 
and attainments in obedience to the vulgar indifference to 
all that does not directly contribute to the greed for gain. 
If this principle is to continue to progress as it seems to be 
doing elsewhere as well as in the shipowning world, and 
if grace and beauty must — however unnecessarily — give 
way to mammon, it certainly behoves those who profit by 
the desecration to restore to the treasury of art what has 
been stolen from it, by the erection and enrichment 
of temples where we can at least retire to worship at 
her shrine, when our holier sympathies need seasons of 
refreshing. 

How far the tinsmith, has improved the condition of 
affairs, we leave to the decision of the underwriter, and the 
inference to be drawn from the long record of sorrow 
entailed upon the relatives of those who have not only 
gone down to, but into the sea in ships. 



" When the clouds spread like a feather, 
Mariner, you may expect fine weather." 



WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29TH, 1881 



And fine weather we have but the wind is unsteady and 
puffy, still from the southeast. The kittywakes continue to 
dance attendance upon us, the gale does not seem to have 
disconcerted them in the least. They perform their evolu- 
tions with their usual attractive grace and occasional plain- 
tive chirp. 

At noon we are in latitude 45° 45' north, and longitude 
89° 45' west, distance run 185 miles, course N. 66° E. 
The day sped along without incident worthy of note till 
in the afternoon Lind managed to fall overboard, Jocelyn 
shied him the " Carte " life buoy, always ready for such 
occasions, encircling the binnacle, which he caught hold of 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 115 

without flutter. The vessel was at once hove upon the 
wind, the gig lowered, and we had him on deck in four 
minutes, as jolly as a sand boy in the anticipation of a glass 
of one water grog, but to all appearances a drowned 
rat. Towards evening the wind falls light and shifting round 
comes out from the southwest, being nearly aft we set the 
flying foresail and our little witch occasionally logs twelve 
knots with its assistance. Another sailor's saw seems likely 
to be verified before morning. 

The South wind always brings wet weather, 
The North wind wet and cold together ; 
The West wind always brings us rain, 
The East wind blows it back again. 

The Doctor entertains us with a description of 
THE GULF STREAM, 

introducing his lecture with Lieut. Maury's beauti- 
ful illustration. " There is a river in the ocean, in the 
severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods 
it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold 
water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico 
is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas — it is the 
Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic 
flow of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Missis- 
sippi or the Amazon, and its volume more than a thousand 
times greater. Its waters as far out from the Gulf as the 



116 Homeward Bound. 

North Carolina Coast, are of an indigo blue, they are so 
distinctly marked that their line of junction with the com- 
mon sea water may be traced with the eye." 

" In order to understand the nature and source of this 
mighty river, you must know that there are currents in the 
ocean as there are currents in the air. The most important 
of these is the Equatorial current, which is known to run in 
a westerly direction upon the equator, and for twenty-five 
degrees, more or less, on either side and parallel to it in the 
Pacific ocean, where it has room to pursue its natural and 
unmolested course. If you could obtain a light india rubber 
hollow ball, of say a foot in diameter, with a bar through 
its center, up and down which it could slide readily, if you 
were then to fill it with water or other liquid and cause the 
bar to rapidly revolve, conveying its motion to the ball, 
you would find that its poles or the parts through which 
the bar passed would move inward, and the part at the 
equator or outside circle of the sphere would be drawn 
outward in similar proportion. This is precisely the action 
that has made the diameter of the earth greater at the 
equator than at the poles, for at one time it is presumed the 
components of which it is formed were soft, and subject to 
the influence of rotation, commonly styled centrifugal 
force. The water upon the earth's surface is now attracted 
by the same irresistible agency to the equator, and there 
becomes agitated from the terrific speed at which the earth 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 117 

revolves, as it were from under it, (equal to a thousand 
miles an hour,) and assumes the flow of the Equatorial 
current. This stream, flowing without hindrance in the 
Pacific, is intercepted when land intervenes and assumes 
varied and tortuous courses, in obedience to the formation 
of the obstacles intercepting and diverting its natural flow. 
Crossing the Pacific it becomes distracted by the group of 
Islands lying south of China, a portion runs along the 
south coast of Australia and is lost in the Antarctic, the 
main portion continues its course between New Guinea and 
Borneo, crosses the Indian ocean until divided by the 
Island of Madagascar, a branch passes round through the 
Mozambique channel, rejoining its recently close com- 
panionship at the Cape of Good Hope, passing up the west 
coast of Africa, until reanimated by its original impulse, it 
again clings to the equator, and becoming impinged upon 
the easterly projection of South America, it is again rent 
asunder, half running down the. Brazil coast, the other half 
impelled along the coast of Guiana, through the Caribbean 
sea, becomes embayed in the Gulf of Mexico, where it is 
heated in a cauldron, receives its baptism of fire and 
emerges to new life as the Gulf stream. Propelled again 
round the southern promontory of Florida at a speed of five 
knots and a temperature of 86° to 88°, it takes a north- 
easterly course, gradually abandoning the coast of the 
United States. As far upwards as Hatteras it retains a speed 



118 Homeward Bound, 

of three knots and a temperature of 80°, while at a depth 
of five hundred fathoms its watery conduit is but 57°. 
North of Cape Henry its temperature has receded 1 to 2°, 
while its bottom has become elevated so that the 57° tem- 
perature is found at a depth of one hundred fathoms. 
Arrived upon the banks of Newfoundland its speed has 
been reduced to \\ knots, but it still retains a summer 
heat ; here it encounters an antagonist in the frigid polar 
current on its way to the equator, which coming down 
through Davis Straits and Baffin's Bay forces it into final 
dismemberment, the main stream flowing into the Arctic 
in the direction of Spitzbergen, the other overflowing its 
liquid banks wafts its genial influences to the coast of 
Ireland and there delivering its tropical message of luxuriance, 
refreshed and mellowed by thousands of miles of ocean 
balm, it descends through the Bay of Biscay, and once more 
rejoins the equatorial current upon the southwest coast 
of Africa. Returning for a moment to the polar current, 
it is interesting to record its mission in diffusing its cool 
and refreshing breath during the fiery heat of the American 
summer ; its delicious baths all along the coast, and its in- 
valuable product of nourishing fish, which would otherwise 
be tasteless, if not unwholesome. On the other hand it 
presents to the mariner in the winter an almost impenetra- 
ble barrier \ it conceals his decks in snow, adds to his 
burden tons of ice, which accumulates wherever spray is 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 119 

precipitated and congeals his rigging into bars of iron, 
rendering his running gear incapable of performing its 
offices, and many a poor crew, bound from the sunny tropics, 
insufficiently clad in the improvidence of their order, it 
reduces to pains and penalties excruciating in their intensity. 
The ship " Mattie Banks," whose picture you so often 
see, was upon an occasion within eighty miles of New York 
in eighty-six days from Calcutta, seized in this inhospitable 
embrace, her men frostbitten, and her gear immovable, you 
can all guess the course her master pursued, with a genial 
climate under his lee, he returned within the health restor- 
ing influence of the Gulf stream, refreshed his weary crew, 
thawed his rigging, once more encountered the wintry 
fence and reached his destination. Is not all this more 
than interesting, but there is more to tell. In the first 
place to whom do you think we are indebted for the 
earliest knowledge of the existence of the Gulf stream ? to 
no less a personage than the whale ; he hovers and romps 
upon its confines, picking up the dainty morsels carried in 
its waters, and here his captors found him, and periodically 
sought him and soon discovered what he was after. 

"Long before Columbus set out on his voyages of dis- 
covery, it had given hints of its existence. Strange sea- 
weeds, trees, and even dead human bodies, of a race 
unknown to Europeans, were stranded upon the coast of 
Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere; unfamiliar objects 



120 Homeward Bound, 

were found upon the shores of the Orkneys, carved woods, 
such as familiarity with the Indians later, brought us into 
contact, bamboo canes and mats, boats made of whalebone 
and covered with sealskin well secured, and stranger still 
an Esquimaux was seen near at hand in his boat. The 
mainmast of the ship "Tilbury," burnt off St. Domingo, 
was landed upon the coast of Scotland, and strangest 
of all, when the length of the voyage is taken into considera- 
tion, casks of palm oil recognized by marks and numbers 
as having been lost on the west coast of Africa, were 
drifted upon the shores of Scotland. Carried down by 
the African current that had already laved the coast of 
England, these casks were delivered to the equatorial stream, 
by the agency of which they had crossed to Mexico, and 
by the Gulf stream were forwarded to their destination. 
" What has the Gulf stream done for Western Europe, 
and especially for our own native islands. Take a glance 
at the map and you will find that our latitude does not 
entitle us to a climate differing from that of ice-encumbered 
Labrador, and the civilization of the Greenlander. When 
have our ports been closed to commerce? And yet the 
St. Lawrence below our parallel, is for months shut off 
from communication with the outer world by an infrangible 
seal. The harbour of St, Johns, a hundred and twenty 
miles nearer the Equator than Liverpool, has been frozen 
and impassible as late in the season as June, and who ever 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 121 

heard that Liverpool was unable to open her dock gates to- 
the fleets of the world. It is this balmy breath of the 
tropics, mellowed and purified in its ocean transit, that 
has made a garden of our unhappy Ireland, that has. 
embellished every available space of her surface with luxuriant 
vegetation and beautiful and fragrant flowers, that has 
transplanted the tint of the peach to the cheeks of her 
fairest of women, enriched their overflowing cup of affection, 
perfected the manhood of her sons, and quickened the 
bright eye of intellect in both. 

"In climes full of sunshine though splendid the flowers," 
Their sighs have no freshness, their oder no worth. 
'Tis the cloud and the mist of our own isle of showers 
That call the rich spirit of fragrancy forth." 

One little fissure in that slender Isthmus of Panama, one 
crevass, and forever the equatorial current would pursue its 
natural progress through the Pacific, and British gardens 
and French vineyards would become the haunts of the 
polar bear and the walrus. " 



;Y |r - u r L ]] jjj J J ,r rT^h 1l ~|." Fir -itI 1, jiT^P^V jl .t"' r ,' TlK ,| ' l i^. ll il ^ -l' 1 ^ 


i^'JUl^Y 1 'V'bViJM.iJ 1 '''u-Vi '^"i' 1 ^ 


l iviiL!ju^LJ:ii,i^]iJi^ l j!ji! i l i t ::, i r!i' i 1 !. i :ij'L lu^i"^'* 1 



" Dusty was the coat, 
Dusty was the colour, 
And dusty was the kiss 
I got frae the miller." 

THURSDAY, JUNE 30TH, 1881. 



To poor Ryan's memory the above verse is dedicated, 
as the last we heard him breathe in his clear tenor. This 
night week the poor fellow received his message to go aloft. 
Showery morning, but fresh and healthful, whales sporting 
unconcernedly around us. It is amusing to watch these 
apparently unwieldy monsters sporting themselves in schools, 
following each other, plunging and skylarking, sometimes 
jumping quite out of the water, and without predetermined 
method, falling helplessly back again with an uproar and 
splash commensurate with a weight and mass of sixty tons 
and more. At noon we are in 46° 59' north latitude, and 
33° 35' west longitude, distance run 260 miles, course made 
good N. 73° E. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 123 

The boys bring aft, after luncheon, two mats they had 
made, and very creditable they are upon so short an appren- 
ticeship. They are now skilled in all kinds of hempen 
technicalities, bowline knots, Turk's heads, selvagees, &c. 

The master and doctor employ the afternoon in compil- 
ing a list of the expeditions, so far made, to the Arctic 
regions. We submit the list, which is tolerably accurate, 
in the appendix. 

The piano and singing occupy us until the "wee sma' 
hours." 



<l So lightly does this little boat 
Upon the scarce touched billows float, 
So careless does she seem to be, 
Thus left by herself on the homeless sea ; 
To lie there with her cheerful sail, 
Till Heaven shall send some gracious gale." — u Isle of Palms." 



FRIDAY, JULY 1ST, 1881. 



The sun rose this morning in unusual splendor into a 
cloudless sky, darting his fiery glances around his dominions 
straight as the sparks from a smithy anvil, and totally- 
eclipsing a modest star that through the middle watch 
seemed to hang like that of Bethlehem over the shrine of 
home to which we are pilgrims. The sea is of indigo, 
flecked here and there by a snowy crest, a smile of greeting 
to the breeze that scarce lingers during the morning watch 
to ruffle its surface, and at breakfast the vessel lay becalmed 
and motionless beyond a graceful curtsey to each languidly 
rolling swell as it approached her. Her sails impatient 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 125 

and fretful in their confinement, as a lion in his cage, flapped 
and moaned discordantly to the evident discomfort of 
spars, which replying creaked in language, that if rendered 
into the vernacular would doubtless savour of the expressive 
though inelegant phrase of the discomfited sailor. The 
boys propose a row round the yacht, which is voted a 
happy whilom release from the turmoil of the calm, as 
also affording a new sensation in the being afloat in an 
open boat a thousand miles from land, upon the gently 
heaving though treacherous bosom of the inconstant At- 
lantic. The gig is launched, and the master and ladies being 
comfortably stowed away in the stern sheets, two hands with 
the boys paddle us away a mile from our ship. In the 
enjoyment and novelty of the scene, the master had not 
noticed that which a gun from the yacht soon called to his 
attention — the leaden bank and vicious ripple down to lee- 
ward that betoken a thunder storm. It was warm jackets 
and a race between human and celestial nature, in which 
happily the more helpless were the winners. On board the 
yacht the boatswain's whistle discourses sweet music and 
there is none sweeter. The superabundant canvass quickly 
disappears and we have just got the boat into the skids, 
when hammer and tongs we caught it. Short and sweet it 
was, however, like the passing anger of a beautiful woman, 
and bathed in tears, yielding brighter sunshine and 



126 Homeward Bound, 

favoring breezes to speed us on our way, like Nourmahal 

" When angry for e'en in the sunniest climes, 
Light breezes will ruffle the blossoms sometimes ; 
That short passing anger that seem'd to awaken, 
New beauty like flowers that are sweetest when shaken." 

As we assemble on deck after luncheon to enjoy the ex- 
quisite freshness of the air and scene, the doctor looks as if 
he were brewing something, and engaging the master, 
throws himself into an attitude of Thespian effect, repeating 

" At sea with low and falling glass, 
The green hand sleeps like a careless ass, 
But only when 'tis high and rising, 
Will slumber trouble a careful wise one." 

"Hold Doctor," exclaims the skipper, "you are avenged 
for my chaff in the shooting occurrence. By the way, did 
you ever find that musket?" 

"No," replies the medico, still posing as Ajax might have 
done when defying the lightning, "but I find that a usually 
careful and discreet commander, alive to the surrounding 
signs and symptoms, without even glancing at his glass, has 
the temerity to paddle away from his vessel to an unsafe 
distance, taking with him his wife and children, and while 
thus frolicking, fails to observe a weather breeder down to 
leeward, which his second in command is obliged to call to 
his superior intelligence by the firing of a gun ! " "Doctor," 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 127 

replies the master, "I promise never again to allude in jest 
or earnest to the rifle affair ; nor shall your lesson be thrown 
away. It is an unwarrantable risk to leave one's vessel at 
sea, unless impelled by circumstances of necessity or expe- 
diency. I perceive in you, doctor, the incipient germs of 
nautical distinction, and when having relinquished the pro- 
fession you now adorn, you walk the prescribed and sacred 
weather side of the quarter deck of your great command, 
remember the humble Corinthian, who kindled the flame on 
board the little ' Nathalie ' and « taught your young ideas 
how to shoot,' (excuse even this remote and unpremeditated 
allusion) and reflect upon the lesson Avhich he ventures to 
offer for your consideration, remember the fate of your 
illustrious predecessor, the gallant Nelson, and avoid the 
too prominent display of your decorations when in action !" 
" Enough, most potent chief," replies the doctor, "I accept 
the hint, which I take to be that in future I must attend 
to my orders ! " 

At noon the result of the usual observations places us in 
latitude 47° 30' north, and longitude 29° 30' west, distance 
run 165 miles, course N. 70° E. 

At two bells (one P. M.) we overhaul a telegraph 
steamer, with a large buoy alongside, evidently splicing or 
underrunning a cable, probably the French, as she is too far 
to the southward to touch an English one, we soon recog- 
nize in her a very old friend indeed, the " Kangaroo." 



128 Homeward Bound, 

In the afternoon later we see two or three steamers bound 
west, too distant to ascertain their personalities. 

At four bells (six P. M.) we are overhauled by the 
steamship " City of Berlin," coming up like a racehorse, at 
a speed of fifteen or sixteen knots ; when we show our num- 
bers and are recognized, our old friend, her commander, 
dips to us without waiting our first courtesy and tenders us 
anything we may require, and adds in adieu the unusual com- 
pliment of a gun, which we return as he flies before us, leaving 
a trail of smoke from his funnel to sully the brightness of 
the surrounding purity. The night closes in with rain and 
a freshning breeze, and we crack on to the yacht as she 
runs down the W. S. W. wind like a swallow. 

One of the least of the little ones amused us immensely 
at the Doctor's expense at dinner this evening. During a 
pause in the conversation, said he, "Papa ! Boatswain is called 
6 Fat man/ I suppose, because he is so fat, and Carpenter is 
called < Chips,' because he makes so many shavings and things. 
Don't you think Dr. Thrale should be called < Pills/ 
because he makes so many and we children have to eat 'em." 
The analogy was so reasonable and enunciated with so 
much gravity, that a general explosion was irresistible, the 
victim himself overflowing with mirth. 



Fro?n the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 129 

Mr. Selwyn entertains us in the cabin with a yarn upon 

WHALES AND WHALE FISHING, 

a subject of great interest, as we have seen so much of the 
monsters of the deep during our trip. 

" For more than 250 years the seafaring propensities of 
the inhabitants of the British Isles have involved them in no 
more venturesome or exciting expeditions than those under- 
taken in pursuit of the whale, far into the ice -locked and 
fog-mantled waters of the Arctic seas; and since William 
Baffin, in 1616, fought his way into the Bay that immor- 
talizes his name, in a little vessel of no more than fifty tons, 
the life and treasure of the Saxon and the Celt have been 
freely expended in those waters, not alone in quest of gain 
but in the exuberance of that heroism and love of adven- 
ture which have had fruition in so much glory and so much 
anguish. There is no more engrossing study than the re- 
cords of the many expeditions that have left our shores in 
the attempt to unclasp, so to speak, another volume of the 
great scientific treatise from which so many features of 
undisclosed physical phenomena are to be revealed ; no less 
in this effort than in the forlorn hope of relieving those 
whose bones have lain stark and bleached in the inhos- 
pitable region, have other nations with that touch of nature 
that makes the whole world kin, equally long suffering and 
heroic, shared and dared the dangers. None more credi- 



150 Homeward Bound. 

table have graced and will grace the pages of history than 
the exploits of Kane and DeLong and Schwatka, and 
Hartstene the agent of the United States Government in its 
graceful act of good will and friendship, in bringing to 
England the derelict "Resolute" of Captain Kellett's ex- 
pedition, that had been picked up by Captain Henry in an 
American whaler, and presenting her thoroughly repaired 
and in her original condition to our Queen ; nor can I refrain 
from naming one who twice made common cause with 
us, and who fell a victim to his courage and sympathy, and 
I shall name him in the words of one that, however 
accustomed to provoke a smile, has ever had a tear and an 
epitaph for departed merit and heroism, I refer to Mr. 
Punch : 

Two sisters stand by Stamboul's sunny waters, 
Two sisters sit where Arctic ice winds rave ; 

Hands clasped, the first watch a fleet's crew at quarters, 
Hands clasped, the second weep beside a grave. 

The same two sisters, long upon each other, 

Stern have they frowned across their channel sea ; 

But now all rivalries and hates they smother, 
And sit thus hand in hand laid lovingly. 

Why ! sisters, rest ye thus at peace together, 
Your ancient feuds and factions all laid by — 

Why smile you in that purple Asian weather, 
Why weep you 'neath the leaden Polar sky ? 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 131 

Two causes,, stranger, hold us thus united, 
Both fit to make true friends of noble foes ; 

In the bright East we stand to see wrong righted, 
In the black North a heroes eyes we close. 

Those battle flags that side by side are swelling, 
Speak of brute force defied of law maintained ; 

Those funeral flags that side by side are trailing, 
Speak both of loss endured and triumph gained. 

Yon banded fleet to all the nations teaches, 

He that doth wrong, his wrong shall sore abye ; 

The icy monument of Bellot preaches 
How nobly love can live, how grandly faith can die. 

Are not these lessons worthy of the living ? 

To give them is't not well to use our might ; 
Then leave us to our gladness and our grieving, 

Under the Eastern sun, beneath the Polar night. 

(< More than sixty expeditions have been engaged, 
beginning with that of Sebastian Cabot, in 1498, to Mr. 
Legh Smith's last, upon which he is still occupied, while in 
pursuit of the whale, many of the most interesting points 
reached in the relief and scientific voyages are annually 
visited. In the social phase of the question the discovery of 
whalebone has worked irretrievable mischief; in it the fair 
chiefs of human nature have found an agent to the dis- 
figurement of the perfection, with which their Maker thought 
fit to endow them, not a whit more to be defended than 



132 Homeward Bound, 

the paint of the squaw or the mechanical aid to the dis- 
tortion and deformity of their Chinese sisterhood, with the 
additional responsibility of undoubted more serious injury 
to functional effort. From a fence of bone they have pro- 
gressed to a cage of steel, and no wonder their hearts have 
become hardened in the pillory. 

u The Balcena Mystecetus, or Greenland or Right or North- 
ern whale, known by all these and some other distinctive 
titles, is the largest as well as the most powerful creature 
known to natural history. He has kinsmen said to attain 
greater length, with however smaller circumference, and 
being supplied with teeth to display a livelier attack and 
defence in the presence of their captors, but commercially 
the Mystecetus is facile princeps. Taking him at a fair size 
and setting aside the marvelous and occasional exceptions, 
he may be assumed to measure sixty feet in length, thirty- 
five to forty feet in circumference at his section of greatest 
displacement, with jaw bones twenty-five feet in length, 
exhibiting when open a yawning cavity, large as the cabin 
of a good sized yacht, but much higher between decks, and 
sufficiently roomy, without much inconvenience if divested 
of the whalebone, to dine a dozen persons ; in length the 
apartment measures about sixteen feet, in breadth about 
eight feet, and height twelve feet. From each bone of the 
upper jaw are suspended in marvelous symmetry of arrange- 
ment, three hundred or more "fins" as they are styled of 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 133 

whalebone, two-thirds of an inch apart from centre to centre r 
and ten to twelve inches broad at the gums, tapering to a 
point, the middle one in each row ten to twelve feet long, 
the others diminishing in length towards either extremity of 
the jaw. With such strange regularity of proportion are 
general features preserved that the weight of the yield of both 
whalebone and oil can be accurately estimated by the 
length of the centre "fin." His organ of locomotion, 
which he wields as well for defensive purposes, is of extra- 
ordinary size and most effective results, and an immense 
concentration of muscle is devoted almost exclusively to its 
use : in length scarcely exceeding six feet, but in width 
twenty- two to twenty-four feet, it has a superficial area of 
eighty to one hundred feet ; when urged at speed its motion 
is vertical, but proceeding at leisure its action is similar to 
that of an oar in the graceful act of sculling. Vulgarly 
supposed to be a fish, he inherits much more of the charac- 
teristics attributed by the garrulous showman to his 
amphibious specimen, a creature "that cannot live on 
land and dies in the water." He does not habitually 
remain submersed for more than fifteen minutes without 
coming to the surface of the water to breathe the life yield- 
ing oxygen, and to lay in a stock which he has the capability 
of secreting for special extremities, demanding a longer 
absence from the never failing and inexhaustaBle reservoir 
of nature. Usually he disports himself while breathing for 



134 Homeward Bound, 

about two minutes at a time, spouting and blowing with 
considerable noise through two apertures upon the crown 
of his head, a hot air vapour mixed with mucous not unlike 
steam, and generally supposed to be water, in which he 
betrays his whereabouts, sometimes being heard from a 
distance of a mile. 

"Unlike her fishy companions, blessed with millions 
of offspring, the cow or female attends to but one calf, 
which she suckles and cares for with the utmost solicitude 
and concern. Dr. Scoresby says, 'she joins it at the surface 
of the water, encourages it to swim off, seldom deserts it 
while life remains. She is then dangerous to approach, loses 
all regard for her own safety in anxiety for the preservation of 
her young, dashes through the midst of her enemies, despises 
the dangers that threaten her, and even voluntarily remains 
with her offspring after various attacks upon herself. There 
is something painful in the destruction of a whale when thus 
evincing a degree of affectionate regard for her offspring, 
that would do honour to the superior intelligence of human 
beings, yet the object of the venture, the value of the prize, 
the joy of the capture, cannot be sacrificed to feeling of 
compassion. 7 

" Upon one occasion I was of a crew that sighted 
a calf which was without difficulty harpooned with the 
object of securing the mother that would doubtless come to 
its assistance. She soon appeared in deepest distress, swam 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 135 

round and round in the wildest distraction, and belaboured 
the surrounding sea into foam as if in her own last * flurry.' 
No boat dare appoach her in her then excited frenzy. 
She seized the calf under her fin and descended with it 
vertically as if herself < fast,' (harpooned). Her reappear- 
ance was not long delayed, the instinct of the mother 
teaching her that the young must repair more frequently to 
the surface than the full grown. She still retained the little 
one, till after a while, worn out with distress, wearied with 
effort and conflict, she was herself secured y and alongside the 
vessel, still held her lifeless offspring in the cold embrace of 
death. A school of whales was driven over the bar into a 
south of England watering place, where it was attacked 
with weapons of every available description. After con- 
siderable effort a large one effected its escape through the 
shallow water into safety, but remembering her calf, she 
returned with much labour and risk of capture to its rescue, 
which, happily a rising tide and favouring circumstances 
enabled her to achieve. 

" The Mirocephalus or sperm whale wanders through 
all the waters of the globe, avoiding only the Arctic. He is 
longer than the Mystecetus but smaller in girth \ without 
whalebone he is < fitted ' with teeth, with the aid of which 
he crunches into tinderwood — devoting his attention again 
and again to the debris — the boats of his pursuers. His 
strength and determination may be estimated from the fact 



136 . Homeward Bound, 

that several vessels have been sunk by the virulence of his 
attack, amongst them the whaler « Essex' in 1820, upon 
the equator, in 118° wesl. While her boats were engaged, 
she was charged by one of these animals in a spirit of revenge 
and no doubt sense of injustice, struck first in the keel 
without much serious effect, she was again hammered on the 
starboard bow and foundered, the crew abandoning her in 
the boats. The " Union •' was similarly destroyed and 
abandoned. This Ceticean yields less oil from his blubber 
than the Mystecetus, but from a case in the rear of his upper 
jaw, as much as 500 gallons of pure spermaceti are frequently 
rendered, where it is secreted in a delicate network of cellular 
tissue. He also yields a very valuable substance called 
ambergris, used in the preparation of perfumery. Both 
classes of animal have exhibited great strength in effort, 
their skulls have been found to have been fractured after 
capture from contact with the bottom when sounding. 
Commercially the pursuit of the whale is said to be profit- 
able, though not so much so now as formerly, the discovery 
of petroleum, the adaptation of gas for lighting purposes, 
and of steel for ladies delusions and umbrella expansion, 
has somewhat curtailed the consumption ; while the capital 
necessary to fit out a whaler in this age of steam increases, 
and the fortune of seasons and the vagaries of luck 
are as inconstant as ever. The imports of whale oil 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 137 

into the United Kingdom for a series of years have been 
as follows : 

1814—33,567 tons. 

1826 — 25,000 tons, this year gas began to assert 
its supremacy. 

1840—22,000 tons. 

1850—21,360 " 

1861—19,176 " 

1864—14,701 " 

1867—15,945 " 

1871—24,679 « 

1872—18,719 " 

1877—19,365 « 
Such an animal as that of which we have given the 
measurement would cut up for about ^1,500 or $7,500. 
Captain Markham, R. N., who spent a season a few years 
ago in the whaler Arctic, relates that of twenty-nine whales 
captured during the cruise, one was estimated to produce 
^1,500, another ^1,450, a third ^1,360, and a fourth 
^1,230. A stout one will yield a ton to a ton and a half 
of whalebone, worth ^500 or $2,500 per ton, and twenty 
to twenty-five tuns of oil, worth say ^"50 or $250 per tun 
of 252 gallons. He will weigh gross seventy tons, his 
blubber thirty tons, his head, bones and whalebone, fins and 
tail, eight to ten tons, and the dismembered carcass thirty 
to thirty-two tons. The food of the Mystecetus is of 



138 Homeward Bound, 

the daintiest medusae, shrimps, and the myriads of diminu- 
tive living creatures abounding in the element which he 
inhabits, and through which he rushes in open-mouthed 
pursuit, involving them in the intricacies of his whalebone 
to be swallowed at leisure, through a throat of but two 
inches in diameter. The Microcephalus may be almost 
said to be carniverous, his tastes and capabilities involve 
him in the mastication of fish, sometimes a shark has been 
found in his capacious stomach \ he is specially fond of the 
cuttle fish, which he is said to relish, as human beings the 
terrapin and turtle. Unlike the smaller fry, from the dying 
torments of which he derives so much enjoyment, man has 
here a victim possessing strength sufficient if only accom- 
panied by the tact to use it, that would enable him to defy 
the puny efforts directed towards his capture \ he has revenge, 
however, in a general way in seducing his pursuers into 
regions where the elements conspire to effect his discomfort 
and occasional ruin. " Severity of frosts, prevalence of 
storms and frequently of thick weather, arising from snow 
and cold, these are the concomitants of the fishing grounds, 
and these combined with the darkness incident to night, a 
tempestuous sea and crowded ice, must probably produce 
as high a degree of horror in the mind of the navigator, 
who is unhappily subjected to their distressful influences 
as ajiy combination of circumstances which the imagination 
can conceive.' ' 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 139 

" The Scots seem now to almost monopolize the more 
daring fields of Davis Straits, Baffin's Bay and Lancaster 
Sound, and with scarcely an exception, Dundee despatches 
the dozen or so of hardy venturers, to be found struggling 
in those seas from May to Otober. Their steamers are from 
300 to 450 tons, and 50 to 70 horses power, and carry from 
forty to sixty men each, and from six to eight boats. They 
are specially strengthened to resist as well the. eccentricities 
of ice contact and embrace, as to enable them to force their 
entrance and effect their retreat through immense and 
dangerous fields of ice, into and from the comparatively 
open water pools in which their prey disports itself. 

" In the Doctor's lecture, the other evening, he gave credit 
to the whale for the discovery to the World above him, of the 
existence of the Gulf stream ; to him also must the palm be 
yielded of disclosing the Northwest passage. A whale 
harpooned but lost in the neighbourhood of Lancaster 
Sound, was captured the same season near Behring Straits, 
having been identified by the vessel's name upon the 
harpoon as well as the date of its use, with which he had 
been encumbered since his escape. It was impossible 
that he could have travelled round Cape Horn in the time 
that elapsed before his final capture, and it was entirely 
foreign to his order to venture into warm latitudes, or to 
make such lengthened peregrinations. 

" Once at sea from her port of departure the whaler is all 



140 Homeward Bound. 

astir with preparation. The crew is divided into three 
watches, instead of the starboard and port of ordinary com- 
mercial vessels ; commanded respectively by the chief mate, 
second mate, and "spectioneer," the latter an officer whose 
particular office it is to superintend the dissection of the animal 
when alongside, as the "skeeman's" the stowing away of 
the blubber into tanks and barrels. When whales are plenty 
all hands are employed in the boats, except the master, 
doctor, engineer, shipkeeper, cook and steward. A vessel 
carrying eight boats would have eight harpooneers, including 
mates and spectioneer, eight steersmen, including skeeman 
and boatswain, and eight line managers. The boats are of 
peculiar construction, usually carvel built, that is to say the 
planks are laid edges together, instead of landing upon 
each other, as those of an ordinary ship's boat. They are 
usually from twenty-five to twenty-eight feet in length, five 
feet six to five feet nine inches in breadth, which is extreme 
at about three -sevenths from the bow, alike at both ends and 
depressed a little in keel amidships to facilitate quick 
turning. The bow is fitted with a bollard for taking a turn 
or two of the line to check its too rapid run as a whale 
takes it out. The weapons of destruction are the harpoon 
and lance, occasionally supplemented by, or dispensed with 
in favor of, rocket and shell . The harpoon is now frequently 
discharged from a description of gun working upon a 
swivel on the larboard side of the boats bow : the 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 141 

older fashioned weapon supported upon a rest called 
a "mik," upon the starboard side is enlisted in action 
almost as often as its more modern colleague. It is formed 
of a bar of iron of the toughest description, so incapable of 
fracture under ordinary trial as to be readily wound round 
an oar when cold, without receiving injury in the test ; the 
necessity for this precaution may be conceived when it is 
stated that after its office has been fulfilled and the iron 
removed from the whale, it is found to be twisted into the 
most fantastic shapes, derived from the contortions of the 
victim. The shank or iron portion of the harpoon is two 
feet in length, of four-tenths of an inch in diameter, welded 
into a spear-like arrow-headed barb at one end, the "withers" 
about eight inches long, being in their turn worked into 
barbs as the points of a fish hook ; to the other end is 
welded a socket of about two inches in diameter and six 
inches long, into which is fitted a wooden stock of six or 
seven feet in length, sufficiently fast to guide the flight of 
the weapon as the stick does the rocket, but not so per- 
manently as to prevent its becoming disengaged when the 
missile is firmly embedded in the whale. Each harpoon is 
branded with the name of the vessel to which it belongs, 
and generally bears concealed somewhere a private mark as 
well. These precautions are sometimes useful in substantia- 
ting priority of title to a whale, that may be claimed under 
circumstances that will occur, by another vessel. The lance 



142 Homeward Bound, 

is six feet long in the shank, and half an inch in diameter, 
fitted with a willow stock, firmly and permanently fixed in 
a socket : the end for effect is not barbed, but a flat oval, 
about eight inches in length, sharpened all round. Its 
purpose is to give the coup de graee by conveying mortal 
injury to some vital organ as soon as the creature is sufficiently 
tired out to be approached with safety. On the way 
to the fisheries, the whole paraphernalia, including these 
weapons, is overhauled ; to the shanks of the harpoons are 
neatly spliced one end of specially selected untarred 2\ 
inch hempen line of three or four fathoms in length, called 
the "fore gore" or "fore ganger;" for the gun harpoon 
this line is three times as long. The boats are suspended 
from the davitts overboard ready for immediate service, 
and are thus equipped : first the lines, with five or six 
lengths of one hundred and twenty fathoms each, of the best 
and most faultless description of two and a half inch tarred 
rope, say six hundred to seven hundred and twenty fathoms 
to each boat ; these are beautifully faked in compartments, 
provided in the stern sheets, within reach of stroke oar, 
under whose special care they are placed, about one hundred 
fathoms in a tub amidships, called the "fore line beck;" 
and between each line five to six fathoms of stray line are 
generally uncovered. Next in importance are the harpoons 
and discharging gun, three or four lances, five or six oars 
and a steering oar, each secured by a lanyard to a thole pin 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 143 

just long enough tp permit of their floating alongside, spare 
thole pins, a marlin spike, a long bladed knife fixed on a 
handle or staff for cutting fins and tail, a fid, a fog horn, a 
file, a bundle of spun yarn, two boat hooks, one or two 
snow shovels, a swab, two small kids, for bailing and 
wetting the line and bollard when likely to become ignited 
by friction, ammunition for discharging gun, and lastly a 
flag stopped on to a staff. 

" The master of the vessel generally takes his station in 
the crows nest — a barrel shaped arrangement made fast to 
the main top-gallantmast head just large enough to enable 
him to sit down, and to afford shelter from the exposure to 
which the altitude and severity of the climate subject him. 
From this situation he directs the movements of his vessel 
through the ice and floes,while at the same time scouring the 
water within the horizon for the first blow that may divulge 
the whereabouts of the fellows he has come so far to 
encounter. Immediately, he sees the desired indication, he 
hails the deck with "There she blows! " and the bustle and 
rush to the boats, to one unused to the life, would be more 
suggestive of a rapidly foundering vessel than the ordinary 
routine of the service. The number of boats despatched 
depends upon circumstances, such as the number of whales 
presumed or seen to be within reach, the nature of sur- 
rounding conditions, such as the state of the weather, chances 
of success, &c, &c. The boat or boats proceed as cautiously 



144 Homeward Bound, 

as possible with muffled oars, keeping behind the whale as 
much as circumstances permit, so as to avoid being seen, or 
technically to " keep off his eye." If successful in surprising, 
the boat is allowed to get bows on to him before the fatal 
gun or stalwart arm discharges the barbed iron deep into his 
body, as near as possible to, and just behind his " flipper " or 
fin. This is effected by the harpooneer, who pulls bow 
oar. Immediately the dart has been hurled, it is " stern all " 
in the boat to avoid the wield of that mighty tail or a 
crushing blow from the flipper. Utterly dumbfoundered by 
the sudden, acute and unexpected agony, the first impulse of 
the animal is to lash about him, his next to " sound" or 
descend vertically, running out the lines at a speed of eight 
or ten miles an hour, with a friction that envelopes the 
harpooneer in a cloud of smoke, demanding all the skill he 
possesses to stifle actual ignition, and at the same time hold 
on to all the line he can with judicious care to keeping 
his boat and crew from being towed under, which the 
slightest hitch would entail and nothing but a well-timed 
blow from an axe avert. Immediately the iron enters 
the animal the flag is hoisted in the boat, as a signal 
that she is "fast" to a whale, and again the ship is stirred 
with demoniacal confusion \ shouts of " a fall ! " "a fall! " 
reverberate. Men rush from below dressed or undressed, 
in the latter case to get on their clothes in the boats 
as there may be time or opportunity. Occasionally a whale 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 145 

will take all the lines from a boat, when should no other be 
near to bend on her's, they as well as the chase are lost. 
When such a probability is threatened, an oar is held up in 
the fast boat as a signal of distress, then another and 
another till assistance arrives or the extremity is past. 

" Dr. Scoresby preserved a record of the time occupied 
in the securing of twelve large whales, before, however, 
modern missiles and appliances were availed of in the 
service, and the sailing vessels employed were unable to 
render the prompt assistance that the steamers of the 
present ensure. The average time was sixty-seven minutes 
to each ; one was secured in twenty-eight minutes, the cap- 
ture of another occupied two hours, one < sounded ' verti- 
cally with six hundred and seventy fathoms of line, another 
took out seven hundred and twenty fathoms, one took 
fourteen hundred fathoms obliquely, another sixteen hundred 
fathoms ; a whale in broken water (that is in loose floating 
ice,) took the lines of no less than eight boats, or portions 
of each to the length of fifty -two hundred and twenty 
fathoms, nearly ten miles, finally taking the boat under, the 
men escaping on an ice floe after many hardships and hours 
of weary pursuit. He was afterwards captured though 
given up for lost, and the boat, several harpoons and much 
of the line recovered. 

"Lighter than the element in which she exists,. the effort 
to force his way down at high speed soon tells upon his 



146 Homeward Bound, 

vital powers. The eminent authority already quoted, cal- 
culates the surface of a stout whale^ to be exposed to an 
atmospheric pressure of thirteen hundred and eighty-six 
tons — his body presenting a superficial surface of fifteen 
hundred and forty square feet ; at a depth of eight hundred 
fathoms and one hundred and fifty atmospheres the weight 
sustained has increased to the enormous pressure of two 
hundred and eleven thousand eight hundred tons. As 
long as he can sustain himself under such circumstances and 
without a fresh draught of oxygen, he remains beyond the 
reach of his captors ; sometimes he has braved it out 
for an hour. 

" On reaching the surface he generally displays weariness, 
although he has been known to descend again and again, to 
tow boats for hours and even days, and occasionally the 
ship herself at a speed of three knots. His end is in a 
i flurry ' in which he lays about him in terror and agony, 
sometimes combining tragedy with his dissolution. Quan- 
tities of blood and mucous are ejected from his blow 
holes as a result of the internal injuries inflicted by the lances, 
drenching the boats crews to complete the accessories to the 
butchery, and from the external wounds his life blood ebbs 
at a temperature of 102°. 

< What sport doth yield a more pleasing content ' says 
Captain John Smith, 'and less hurt and charge than angling 
with a hook and crossing the sweet air from isle to isle over 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 147 

the silent streams of a calm sea wherein the most curious may 
find profit, pleasure and content? Is it not pretty sport to 
pull up twopence, sixpence and twelvepence as fast as you 
can haul and veer a line?' If this be so, imagine the sensa- 
tions experienced in feeling £1500 suspended on a two and a 
half inch line at a depth of eight hundred fathoms with two 
to one against one's securing it, the additional excitement of 
knowing that ere he be secured there may be a vacancy in 
one's mess, the uncertainty of the length of time he may play 
one, an hour or forty-eight, perhaps, winning the game 
himself in the end, and the all absorbing anxiety apart from 
the other accessory delights to a man of daring and action 
of securing victory. All these may be estimated to yield a 
joy unspeakable. 

" Deeds of heroism grow with luxuriance in so fertile a soil. 
Men have jumped upon a whale's back in eagerness to 
convey a mortal wound. A fast fish descended obliquely 
under impervious ice, and believed to have been lost, was 
ultimately traced to an opening which he had reached to 
blow. The harpoon was seen to be nearly drawn, a hand 
jumped upon his back, followed by another and another, 
the iron was cut out, securely reinserted and the animal 
eventually killed and drawn from underneath the ice to 
open water, was soon alongside the ship. When dead, the 
lines are disengaged, the flippers pierced and lashed across 
the belly which is now uppermost. A line is made fast to a 



148 Homeward Bound, 

strop round the root of the tail, and sometimes a tow of 
hours winds up the weary, but successful chase. Once 
firmly secured alongside, however, food and grog are in order. 
The process of e flensing ' or disengaging the blubber is 
an act of mere butchery and not of sufficient interest to 
describe here. It is fully explained by both Dr. Scoresby 
and Captain Markham in their most interesting works. 
The whalebone is first secured, the fins and tail disengaged 
and saved and the blubber stowed away after first removing 
from it the useless fibrous tissue. The final rendering into 
oil is deferred until the return of the vessel to her home 
port" 



11 Weeping or smiling, lovely isle, 
And all the lovlier for thy tears ; 
For though but rare thy sunny smile, 
'Tis Heaven's own glance when it appears." 



SATURDAY, JULY 2ND, 1881. 



As we approach our native land her tears come out to 
meet us and draw us more closely towards her. Rain, rain all 
the morning and our longest distance 300 miles is to be 
recorded to 49° 50' north, latitude, 23° west longitude, 
course N. 67 E. Strong breezes spring up from west to 
south and our craft has full benefit of all she can carry 
without complaining. We feel like the man-of-war's boat- 
swain upon entering the channel in a dense fog after a 
three year's service on the West India station, and in the 
enthusiasm of approaching his native land. Oh! he 
exclaims, rubbing his hands, " this is none of your d 



150 Homeward Bound, 

blue skies!" A national steamer passed west during the 
morning, and several sailing vessels inward and outward 
bound, bearing hearts, some radiant in the anticipation of 
rejoining loved ones after long separation, others outward 
bound having but tasted of the cup must needs put it away 
again from them, bearing but the flavour of the draught to 
refresh their thirsty longings for many a weary day. 

u So brief our existence, a glimpse at the most, 

Is all we can have of the few we hold dear, 
And oft even joy is unheeded and lost, 

For want of some heart that could echo it here. 
Ah ! well may we hope when this short life is gone, 

To meet in some world of more permanent bliss, 
For a smile or the grasp of a hand hastening on, 

Is all we enjoy of each other in this." 

We drink sweethearts and wives to-night with peculiar 
unction, and as of old in the forecastle : 

il The standing toast that pleased the most 
Was the wind that blew, 
And the ship that flew, 
And the lass that loves a sailor." 



; Nay, if flowers will lose their looks. 
If sunny banks will wear away, 
'Tis but right that bees and brooks 

Should sip and kiss them while they may.' 



SUNDAY, JULY 3RD, 1881. 



If one could paint in language the delirium of enjoy- 
ment — somewhat resembling the sensations described by a 
man who had been partially drowned of the last stages of 
his immersion — experienced in reclining upon the deck of 
his own vessel, on a calm night alone upon the ocean, far 
from the influences of the busy world, after all his little 
world has disappeared to rest ; even those to whom its control 
has been intrusted lounging silently like spectres wrapped in 
their own reflections, and yielding to instinct immediate 
concerns. If one could hang up in a frame the picture 
presented there to the mirror of his reason, for contempla- 



152 Homeward Bound, 

tion in other times, what a powerful influence would it not 
recall for his guidance. In the foreground let us imagine 
himself the smallest feature in the group, the beating of his 
heart recalling the wondrous mechanism of his own system, 
the laugh of the ocean in his ear, gazing upwards to the 
millions of worlds brilliantly demonstrating their realities, 
and in their splendour and the regularity of their motion 
through illimitable space, asserting silently the existence of 
their Creator and Governor, whom infinitesimal he, even 
when in his better self but languidly and half-heartedly 
acknowledges. Here now in his solitude his spiritual 
monitor begins to breathe into his nostrils the breath of a 
better life, and he asks of himself whence does this inspira- 
tion proceed ? See, he is surrounded in the picture by 
scenes and occurrences of his past life, its enjoyments, lusts, 
selfishness, indulgences, opportunities for good neglected, 
occasions for pleasure seized with avidity. All the details 
obtruding in shocking reality, pass before his imagination 
and with them indelibly blended the recollection that a 
warning voice was ever in his ear, surely a messenger of the 
stronger influence now drawing the curtain from before the 
picture of his life. Other admonitions have been strewn in 
his path. The beauties of nature his Creator has laid at 
his feet, and placed lavishly around him, not only for his 
enjoyment but that his reason should confirm conscience in 
discriminating for him between loveliness and impurity. 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 153 

Other more demonstrative warnings — because illustrated in 
the being whom the Creator had made in the image of 
himself, have not been wanting. Has he not seen? does 
he not see in the picture in his own immediate neighbour- 
hood, living examples of the results of excessive indulgence, 
and is he sufficiently thankful that he has been spared like 
temptations? 

He sees, he must see, that his evil impulses have been 
the growth of his own nature, that he has ever been even 
in his least indiscretion, admonished by the never failing 
counsellor at his side. He must feel, and his experience 
has convinced him, that the more he has abandoned himself 
to self the weaker became the disposition to listen to 
the importunities of his invisible companion ; and the more 
he communed with his spiritual guide the stronger became 
the contrast between good and evil, and with it a percept- 
ably exalted view of life and determination to accept the 
better part. He now realizes as he gazes through the 
myriads of stars, far up into the Heaven of Heavens, 
soothed by the gentle motion of his vessel, purified by the 
contemplation of the picture, and lured by reason and 
distance from worldly attachments into his spiritual life, 
an enjoyment he cannot express, a conviction he cannot 
repress, that whatever else may, it is not the will of his 
Heavenly father that he should perish, and that if he will he 
shall be spared for a higher spiritual inheritance, incorrupti- 



154 Homeward Bound, 

ble and undefiled, which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, 
neither hath entered his heart of hearts to conceive. He 
does "not now desire to put his finger into The Palm or his 
hand into The Side. He looks back upon the World, upon 
Nature, and all her beauties, and the delinquencies into 
which they have seduced him, and at once has learnt how 
little his own or their gospel can do for him, and he calls 
to mind a passage from John Stuart Mill's " Essay on 
Nature:" 

" Nature impales men, breaks them as if on the wheel, 
casts them to be devoured by wild beasts, crushes them with 
stones like the first Christian martyr, starves them with 
hunger, freezes them with cold, poisons them by the quick 
or slow venom of her exhalations, and has hundreds of 
other hideous deaths in reserve, such as the ingenious 
cruelty of a Nabis or a Domitian never surpassed. All this 
nature does with the most supercilious disregard both of 
mercy and of justice, emptying her shafts upon the best 
and noblest indifferently with the meanest and worst; 
upon those who are engaged in the highest and worthiest 
enterprises, and often as the direct consequence of the 
noblest acts ; and it might almost be imagined as a punish- 
ment for them. She mows down those on whose existence 
hangs the well-being of a whole people, perhaps the 
prospects of the human race for generations to come, with 
as little compunction as those whose death is a relief to 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 155 

themselves, or a blessing to those under their noxious 
influence. Such are Nature's dealings with life." And the 
yachtsman realizes the teachings of one — no dreamer but a 
life-long conspicuous and skilled labourer in the depths of 
science — in a sermon preached at Cambridge, England : 

* "We come into this beautiful world of sunshine, of rain, 
of storms; of spring, summer, autumn, and winter; of 
pleasure and pain, of love and hatred, we know not how, 
and we leave it we know not why. To most of us, like the 
flies born at sunrise and destined to perish at sunset, its 
mysteries cost not a single thought ; we flutter our little 
life through it and know not what it means. To the 
thoughful few its aspect is sad and mournful. Our life is so 
short, and the lives of all we see around us so short that we 
become impressed with an undue idea of the longevity and 
permanence of nature and her processes. How rash is this 
conclusion a little thought will suffice to show. 

1. The life of the individual is but an infinitesimal part 
of the life of the species or race to which he belongs. 

2. The life of the species is but an infinitesimal part of 
the geological period to which it belongs. 

3. The geological period is but an infinitesimal part of 
the whole of geological time, during which terrestrial living 
things have existed. 

*Rev. Samuel Haughton, M. D., F. R. S., &c, &c. 



156 Homeward Bound, 

4. The whole geological time is but an infinitesimal 
part of the duration of the little solar system to which we 
happen to belong. 

5. The whole duration of our solar system is but an 
infinitesimal part of the duration of the stellar systems of 
which we form a small part. 

6. The whole duration of stellar systems is but an in- 
finitesimal part of the duration of those impossible (or mirac- 
ulous) causes that first set the Laws of Nature in motion, and 
which day by day maintained them, 

7. And, last of all, the duration of these miraculous, 
impossible causes is lost in the Infinite First Cause which has 
been, and is, and shall be for ever. 

Rapid flux and change is the order of Nature, and not 
permanence and stability. Many of the so-called fixed 
stars are moving in space at rates varying from 30 to 200 
miles per second, (at which latter rate a passage could be 
made from Cambridge to Pekin in a single minute,) and 
come and go so swiftly that it is highly probable that of the 
stars of the constellations pictured on the retina of the . 
Ichthyosaurus or Plesiosaurus in former times, not a single 
one is now visible through our telescopes, and yet these 
creatures lived in times extremely recent as compared with 
other times which we can compute; 

Beyond this endless flux and change of Matter and of 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 157 

Nature, there lies the eternal repose of the fixed unerring 
Laws and Truths of God. 

I have sat beside many death-beds, and have seen and 
studied many forms of death in its changing phases, and 
have there learned that there are truths in the system of 
things as real and as certain as any laws of Nature, although 
we cannot perceive them with our senses. My eyes cannot 
see them ; my ears may not hear them ; nor can I touch 
them with my hands, but they are there. I know them to 
be true, and that they will endure when Nature and her 
laws shall have passed away like the memory of a troubled 
dream. I testify what I have seen. I have many a time 
seen an humble earnest faith in these unseen truths cause a 
smile of joy to play upon the pale face distorted with pain, 
like a sunbeam dancing on the bosom of the troubled 
ocean. I have seen those truths illumine with a light from 
heaven the dim eyes soon to be closed for ever by the cold 
hand of death. These truths are more dear to me than all 
that nature can teach me, because they touch my inner life 
and consciousness. I learned these truths as a little child 
at my mother's knee ; I cherish them in my heart of 
hearts • and in defence of them, if opportunity should offer 
and God should count me worthy, I would gladly lay down 
my life." 

The day begins with uncertain light airs hovering round 
the west and at daylight a wind gall shows itself, though it has 



158 Homeward Bound, 

come to nothing, the harbinger of storm in its broad vertical 
streak of copper and olive green connecting its dark cloud 
of evil import with the sharp outline of the clear horizon. 

How beautifully, and in what good light does nature hang 
her pictures at sea. Where else can the perfect form and 
bright and gorgeous colours of the rainbow be seen in their 
beauty and prestine splendour ? Here the Aurora Borealis 
twinkles its sense of undisputed attraction in clear and 
sparkling glances within its circular frame of horizon. The 
approaching majesty of morning dispatches his rays to 
be borne before him refracted in atmosphere that is 
anxious to obtain his earliest smile to distribute upon a 
scene ready to welcome his coming and acknowledge his 
glory, and as he disappears in the gloaming he passes away 
leaving a trail of splendour upon a scene that heightens 
the charm of his last ray. 

The inconstant Moon, "Fair Regent of the Sky," heiress 
to him that has died bathes in the ocean before she shows 
her beautiful face upon its glassy surface, where she flirts 
with its ripples as they reflect her chaste features ; and the 
starry Heaven repeats itself in the only mirror graced with 
its likeness; and the thunder storm, the hail, the snow as 
t]?ey grow from their births are pictured here with uneclipsed 
beauty, all unmarred by competing colours or detracting 
intervening outline. 

A large iron ship passes to the northwest during the 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 159 

morning watch, close aboard of us cleaving her way through 
the water with a roar like the tearing of a piece of cotton 
cloth. Morning prayers are read to a somewhat larger 
audience than usual. At noon the result of the morning 
observations and meridian altitude place us in latitude 
50° 30' north, and longitude 18° 30' west, course N. 79° E., 
distance run 170 miles. At luncheon a Cunarder passes 
to the westward, bound, probably to Boston, reminding us 
that this good old Company still asserts its being upon a 
sea once practically its own, and from which it has hitherto 
resisted toll of human suffering even to the shedding of a 
tear much less the holocaust occasionally and indiscrimin- 
ately demanded from the trespassers in the dominions of 
Neptune. The usual catechism as to when we shall 
see land begins to-day, the trans-atlantic experiences of 
our passengers demanding the most unerring information 
upon the point. 

Towards evening a large vessel approaches from the east- 
ward on a bowline, her hull as yet invisible, but her unusual 
hoist of topsail at once suggests that she is a Monarch 
of our order — a large frigate ; her enormous spread of 
snowy canvas stands like a house of cards upon her tant 
spars, and above her clouds, as it were, the long and fluttering 
pennant looks wistfully behind as if symbolizing the 
emotions that vibrate between those on board and the girls 
they've left behind them; gradually her hammock nettings 



160 Homeward Bound, 

are raised, then her black bends, and her broad white 
riband, with its barking beauties now silent and confined in 
their leashes, and soon she appears in all her glory the most 
perfect achievement of man's creation, in beauty in design 
and in sentiment. As she comes well abeam about a mile 
to leeward, we pay the usual respects to our superior, 
announcing our name and voyage • almost immediately the 
mighty maintopsail is aback and simultaneously the profes- 
sional element amongst us recognize the four little equidis- 
tant black balls that quickly trace their upward way through 
her maze of rigging, like chickens through a thorn hedge, 
relieved by the background of her canvas. As if by magic 
these little objects break into bright quivering coloured 
messengers, followed in due course by others hailing us the 
following information,' courtesies and commands. " Her 
Britannic Majesty's ship, < Iconoclast,' 50 guns, cruising." 
" Allow me to congratulate you! " " Come within hail ! " 
On the starboard tack and to windward, our helm is put 
up and as the frigate still carries her way we stand across 
her stern, come about and round to upon her weather 
quarter. An officer hails us from the poop, l( Can I offer you 
anything after your plucky voyage ? " " Nothing, thanks ; " 
nevertheless a bullet with a line attached is adroitly cast 
across our deck, soon followed by a splash in the water 
alongside, and we haul on board a neat tin cannister which, 
when opened, reveals a bundle of newspapers and a pine- 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 161 

apple of splendid dimensions and grateful aroma evidently 
a recent emigrant from an English hot-house. Our master 
tenders his acknowledgements for the thoughtful and 
acceptable contribution toward our comforts, and after 
answering some enquiries about weather encountered, ice, 
&c, asks, " Can I do anything for you? I shall be delighted 
to take in letters or serve you in any way, as we are bound 
home." " Thanks, I should hate to detain you." " Nonsense, 
I can spare you an hour, or two for that matter." "May I 
ask you to pay me a visit then ? I will send a boat aboard 
of you at once." Our ladder is shipped, the boatswain 
pipes the side and almost immediately a gig is alongside 
and a mid jumps on our decks, raises his cap and 

asks, "Mr. Garnet, I presume?" "Yes." "Lord 

begs that you and your party will honour him with a visit." 
"Thanks, we shall be happy." "Won't you step below? a 
glass of sherry ? Now, we are at your service." 

We are soon upon the magnificent decks of the noble craft, 
and are met by a jovial, handsome man of about forty-five, 
with " delighted to welcome you on board my ship. May I 
conduct you to my cabin?" We pass the sentry into the 
poop and thence into the after cabin, cool and charming, with 
stern ports open upon roomy galleries and like a summer 
garden in its profusion of plants and flowers, differing but 
little from a cosy drawing room, except in its lower ceiling 
and the huge slumbering bull dogs of guns. " Now, Mrs. 



162 Homeward Bound, 

Garnet, I beg that you will consider yourself at home, if 
that be possible, and next that you will let me know if there 
can be anything that you think of in a sailor's locker 
by chance acceptable to you. You have been twelve 
days at sea, remember, and I am but three from 
Spithead, so without boasting it may be presumed that 
I have something of which time may have deprived 

you." " Really, Lord , I am disposed to picture your 

sailor's locker, as you are pleased to call it, with no end of 
luxuries to judge from the instalment already supplied us 
by your good nature." " Well, I am sure I am delighted 
to have been fortunate in contributing, in however small a 
way, to the pleasure of so courageous a sailor.'' "Are you 
in earnest, Garnet, in offering our crew an opportunity of 
sending in letters ? You will have blessings showered upon 
you, I am sure." " Certainly, by all means." " Steward 

pass the word for Mr. , I wish to see him." A 

handsome Lieutenant bows as he approaches and is intro- 
duced. "Mr. , Mr. Garnet is good enough to take 

letters in for us. How long shall we say, Garnet, an 
hour?" "Yes, certainly." "Now, Mrs. Garnet, will you 
do me the honour of dining with me, and may I send for 
the rest of your party? Mr. Garnet, will I am sure, agree 
with me that there is no likelihood of weather, at least, 
causing inconvenience." 

And so we get along with this specimen of the frank 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 163 

and well-bred English gentleman, and our young- 
sters find engrossing pleasure in being shewn round 
by half a dozen midshipmen. Our party at dinner 
consists of His Lordship, his chaplain, first lieutenant, and 
doctor ; while our little ship contributes the Master and Mrs. 
Garnet, Doctor Thrale and Miss Loulie. The table is 
supplied with all that can be expected from a long purse 
and a short notice, and having spent a most enjoyable hour 
or two, we leave with regret, but refreshed with the inter- 
lude in our little voyage. As we step into the boat preceded 
by a good sized letter bag, our host exclaims, " Now, Mrs. 
Garnet, think of all the pretty girls and anxious wives your 
husband's good nature will have gladdened by conveying 
that bag, not to speak of the coarser material that have 
been quill driving since you have been with us." " Good 
bye, safe home." The master detains the middy alongside 
for a moment while he has placed in the boat a basket of 
wine, as a contribution to the mess. We have scarce laid 
our course, when the huge leviathan is herself gathering way, 
but has hauled her wind upon the starboard tack, and now 
lays about E. S. E., her course when we met being about 
W. | N. TheTast sound of the boatswain's whistle has been 
severed by distance, and a bugle call sounds the requiem of 
our parting. Some sacred music in the cabin winds up our 
evening's observances. 



u And I'll gaze on thy gold hair as graceful it wreathes, 
And hang o'er thy soft harp as wildly it breathes ; 
Nor dread that the cold hearted Saxon will tear, 
One cord from that harp or one lock from that hair." 



MONDAY,. JULY 4TM, 1881. 



The day breaks bright and clear with a fine all sail 
breeze from the northwest. The American sympathies of 
the children, especially, are all alive in honour of the day 
and have been exercised upon the master, the mates, and 
boatswain, in the endeavour to exact a promise of rockets 
and blue lights to complete the customary observances. 
The best we can accord is a few guns, as now that we are 
in the midst of vessels pyrotechnic display might be con- 
strued into signals of distress and lead to confusion. 
We have a further unexpected souvenir of the "Icon- 
oclast," upon our breakfast table in the shape of a mag- 
nificent game pie, smuggled into our pantry by the order 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 165 

of her commander, and we wash it down in a bottle of 
Johannisberg to the health of the gallant hero. 

The noon day bulletin gives our situation as latitude 
51° 20' N., longitude 12° 10' west, distance 240 miles, 
course N. 80 E., 110 miles from the Fastnet. In the 
afternoon we get up the deep sea lead to take a cast to 
verify our reckoning and find 77 fathoms and sand upon 
the armour, which places us just where we supposed our- 
selves to be, and is the first "how d'ye do?" on our 
approach. Many a cheery welcome have the seventies and 
the white sand and shells accorded to the worn out 
mariner, tempest tossed, and without a glance at any object 
but clouds and water for days and nights. The master 
is worried with persistent questions accordingly, and gets 
out of it as follows : " The depth of the ocean is but the 
height of the submarine earth at the point where our 
sounding lead touches its surface, and it is therefore irreg- 
ular as is the surface itself, shallowing with its hills and 
mountains, deepening with its valleys, and preserving 
regularity according to the extent of its plains and plateaux; 
were we enabled to obtain a survey correct as we possess of 
the dry land, we should find the bottom of the ocean as 
broken and irregular \ we should be enabled as from the 
knowledge we already possess of its nature near to the 
shore, and from which the mariner by the use of his lead 
ascertains his position within these limits, in the darkest 



JlOO Homeward Bound, 

nights or in the densest fogs to extend our capabilities, so 
as to estimate with accuracy as from a balloon our position 
anywhere upon the waters, without the aid of astronomical 
science upon which we are now solely dependent. The 
fishes dwell in the depths of the ocean, which is their 
atmosphere, as we dwell in the depths of the air, which is 
ours ; they possess at least one advantage over us, that 
whereas our wanderings are limited to the irregularities of 
the earth's surface, and by the aid of mechanical appliances 
to the surface of the sea, they range throughout their 
atmosphere at will, unassisted by artificial means. The 
earth that they inhabit is subject to diversity of climate as 
ours, their vegetable world to as many varieties, and their 
animal to possibly larger natural distinctions. Counting fresh 
water examples there are now 13,000 known varieties of fauna. 
The celebrated scientific expedition of H. M. S. "Chal- 
lenger," round the world has demonstrated that there are 
laws that govern the geographical distribution and vertical 
range of marine plants and animals, as well as those we 
are familiar with on the earth's surface, and we also learn 
from science that beautiful as is our earth, the submarine 
earth is steeped in equal if not surpassing splendour. Its 
hills and valleys as fertile, and its gardens as stocked with 
flowers and tropical luxuriance ; it has grottoes and bowers 
of surpassing loveliness, lighted at night with ever moving 
and brilliant lamps of many colours and hues. Its only 



From tne Chesapeake to the Mersey. 167 

blemishes are received from man's habitation ; guns, and 
cannons, swords and weapons of his invention for the de- 
struction of his species, stark corpses of men killed in 
action, and of men, women and children lost by shipwreck. 
Gold there is in quantities to supply the greed of all the 
misers of earth, if quantity at least could attain this end. 
There is nothing that man has enjoyed or has contended 
for that has not dropped from his reach to the bottom of 
the ocean. The average depth of the Atlantic as far as 
ascertained is about 2,000 fathoms. There is a hole east of 
Bermuda of about 3,000 fathoms, and another near the Cape 
de Verde Islands • but once remembering the fact with 
which we commenced, it will be seen that unless every few 
yards of the bottom had been examined and mapped out, the 
results of a few soundings here and there can be of little 
general interest." 

As day declines we are in a state of excitement, 
and at nine o'clock the hail of "Land ho!" comes 
down from the foremast cross trees, and soon the flash of 
the Fastnet is discernable from the deck. It would have 
been more enjoyable could we have had daylight for our 
first glimpse of Erin, but it was not to be. As we approach 
the light we can just see the outline of Mizen head and 
Browhead, and at ten P. M., we are abreast of the Fastnet 
rock, the outline of which is quite distinct, something 
resembling a battered peg top, spike uppermost, with a 



1 68 Homeward Bound, 

fire-fly upon its point. The gorged and indented coast 
line is also to be discerned, with a dark blue foreground, and 
white fringe of breaking water. We can imagine its ever- 
green summit flecked with the white cottages of the 
peasantry. 

No more refreshing picture can be presented to the tired 
or sea-sickened traveller than this beautiful, and as he proceeds, 
ever changing, and rock bound coast of Ireland, and to our 
ship's company, who love it so well, and can imagine each 
well-known feature as we pass along in the darkness, the 
pleasure of hearing the sea break under its cliffs is in itself 
an enchantment. A discussion ensues as to whether we 
shall run into Queenstown for fresh provisions, and a short 
change of scene. The matter is left to the whim of the 
master, should he feel like the responsibility when round 
the old Head of Kinsale. The original Baltimore is now 
just inside of us, with Sherkin and Kedge Islands and 
Ringarory on either side. 

Poor Ireland ! abroad or at home, the same yesterday, 
to-day and forever, into what inextricable confusion have 
her circumstances been entangled, and what is to release 
her from her fetters ? with priestcraft, poverty and ignorance 
entailed upon her, and statecraft interposing erroneous 
diagnoses and administering quack medicines — temporary 
expedients of weakness, her soul and body are wracked 
with mental and physical anguish, under the influence of 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 169 

which reason has been dethroned, and she is left without a 
friendly asylum in which to find repose and recovery ; 
her loyal and natural chiefs estranged and banished, their 
healthful example and intercourse superseded, she is left 
a prey to irresponsible and alien leaders, in their turn im- 
prisoned into martyrdom and released to popularity. 

Since the Union there has been scarce a ministry that has 
not imposed its nostrums, everything has been tried but the 
simplest, namely, the leaving her alone to work out her own 
regeneration subject to the laws enforced in the other parts 
of her Majesty's Dominions supplemented by a system of 
compulsory, and if it must be, secular education, a scheme 
for gratuitous or assisted emigration, and unfortunately it is 
to be added a surveillance of the rentals so far only as to 
prevent the exacting of grasping and recently acquired 
landlords, largely Irish tradesmen, who became possessed 
under the Encumbered Estates Act of 1849 — an act which 
was to restore prosperity to the unhappy country — at prices 
far above value, upon which they now seek with commer- 
cial instincts to extract from impoverished tenantry paying 
interest : and of the usurious " rack renters" or middlemen 
infesting the country. 

Think of her line of illustrious men. Almost if not 
simultaneously the following Irishmen held official positions : 

Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Cairnes. 

Governor General of India, Lord Mayo. 



170 Homeward Bound, 

Governor General of Canada, Lord Monck. 

Lieutenant Governor of Punjaub, Sir Robert Montgomery. 

Governor of Nova Scotia, Sir Richard McDonnell. 

Governor of Australia^ Lord Belmore. 

Governor of South Australia, Sir Dominick Daly. 

Chief of London Police, a situation of much importance, 
Sir Richard Mayne. 

Lord Palmerston, one of England's most respected and 
honoured Prime Ministers, was an Irishman. Lord Duf- 
ferin, late Governor General of Canada and since Minister 
to Russia, and now to the Sublime Porte, is an Irishman. 
Wellington, the Lawrences, the Napiers, Lord Gough, Sir 
Garnet Wolseley, Sir Frederick Roberts, all Irishmen. Arctic 
heroes and discoverers in plenty. Sir Robert McClure dis- 
covered the Northwest passage, Sir Leopold McClintock, now 
Admiral of the North American Station, Maguire, and others 
have left their names deeply engraved in Arctic ice fields. 
The Judges, Barons Martin and Huddlestone and Mr. Jus- 
tice Keatinge. The Bishops of Norwich, of Peterboro, and 
Sodor and Man are Irishmen ; Elmore Turner, Maclise, 
Mulready and others have adorned the world of art ; Gibson, 
Foley and others of sculpture \ Burke, Steele, Sterne, Sheri- 
dan, Swift, Bishops Berkeley and Whately, Tyndal, Moore, 
Goldsmith, Hemans, Hall, Ferguson, McCarthy, Lecky, 
of philosophy, science, literature and poetry. But 
time and space would fail to tell of Grattan, of 
Curran, of Sheil and the hundreds of others : in 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 171 

every sphere where bravery or talent have had need of her 
services, there has Ireland contributed of the best, and now? 
* * * Toe Head, 350 feet from the water, looms 
into vision and soon the beautiful outlying precipitous 
cluster of the Stag rocks one of which rises 66 feet from sea 
level. Then High Island, 140 feet, Glandore harbour 
with the Carrigfadda Mountains in its rear. Gaily Head 
comes next abeam at 1.30 A. M. and soon after the light 
upon the old Head of Kinsale is visible, which is abeam 
at 3 A. M. At 4 A. M. Queenstown lights are dim in the 
morning light after the Daunt Rock Light ship has shouted 
its name to us from its conspicuously lettered side. It is a pity 
to waste the fair wind so we pass the hospitable harbour 
where a welcome would have reached us, and with 5.45 and 
Bally cotton abeam, our deck is reanimated from below 
the delicious mountain air from the heather of old Ireland 
being a most refreshing morning draught. Next Youghal 
is passed and we are hailed from fishing boats, with offers 
of fresh fish of a dozen descriptions, and soon Robinson is 
beside himself in selecting from the silvery and golden flow 
of the cornucopia presented for his approval. Herron, one 
of the crew, chaffs the steward, "It is a pity, Mr. Robinson, its 
not a Friday, its a sin to see thim fine fish wasted." "Oh, 
the divvil a waste it will be with you, you Herron (herring) 
you, its soles (souls) you'll be destroying before long — the 
steward a melancholy low churchman cannot bear any 
allusion to fast days, &c. 



172 Homeward Bound, 

The fisheries of the United Kingdom are well worth 
looking into. A writer upon the subject says, " every 
acre of sea is infinitely more productive than the 
same quantity of richest land." All along this coast 
the Cornish and Isle of Man as well as the Irish 
fishing boats may be seen in almost countless numbers, 
plodding away with their lines, trawles and nets from morn 
to dewy eve, and night for that matter. "Five boats 
belonging to one owner have in a single night brought into 
harbour seventeen tons of fish, an amount of wholesome food 
equal in weight to fifty cattle or three hundred sheep. 
More than a thousand tons of trawled fish alone come into 
London market weekly. In one year twelve thousand tons 
of herrings alone were sent from the port of Yarmouth to 
London and provincial markets. Some little time since 
the fishermen of Lowstoft took twenty-two million herrings 
in two days, the value of which at the market price of 
one penny each was ^91,666, or #450.000. In 1876 in 
the Irish fisheries 5,945 boats were engaged, employing 
22,773 men and 920 boys. In Scotland the same year the 
number of boats was 14,547 of 106,440 tons, employing 
45,263 hands. The boats usually start out in the afternoon 
each with a train of nets half a mile in length and thirty 
feet in depth, first the anchor is hove overboard and the 
vessel sails down the wind, paying out the nets as she 
proceeds, which are sunk twenty to thirty feet below the sur- 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 173 

face suspended by cork floats ; when all has been paid out 
she herself hangs on to the net which serves to keep it 
stretched to its full length. The fish wander about in shoals 
in the night, endeavour to pass through and are arrested \ 
the mesh being calculated to admit the head a little beyond 
the gills, when they endeavour to retreat the gill interferes, 
and they have become secured. In one night a boat with 
the investment in service of £100 to £200 will bring in six- 
pence worth of fish, or it may be £80 to £100 worth. One 
hundred pounds of fish contain as much nourishment as 
two hundred pounds of wheat bread, or seven hundred 
pounds of potatoes. Eight hundred to nine hundred 
trawlers averaging each ninety tons, or eighty thousand tons 
per annum, supply London market with flat fish irrespective 
of sprats and shell fish. France pays to her fishermen £2 
per annum each or $540,000 as a retaining fee to secure 
their services for the navy when circumstances demand 
drawing upon the reserve. 




Oh ! if for every tear 
That from our exiled eyes, 
Has fallen Erin, dear, 
A shamrock could arise, 
We'd weave a garland green, 
Should stretch the ocean through 
All, all the way between 
Our aching hearts and you. 

TUESDAY, JULY 5TH, 1881, 



At 9.30 A. M., we are abreast of Hook Tower, at the 
east entrance to the Waterford harbour, in the race of the 
tower where we nearly came to grief forty years ago in the old 
"Petrel," every inch is here familiar and we keep in as 
close as prudence warrants. We dare not enter the harbour 
as we could not resist the temptation of making some stay 
there. We pass close in to the shelving and fossil marked rocks 
of Hook, and then Slade, Loftus Hall, a sea lodge of the 
marquis of Ely, then Patrick's Bay, Ore Wye,Sand Eel Bay, 
our old bathing ground and old " Houseland," the sea resort 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 175 

of the master's family for many years, and its old castle, built 
as a conning tower by Strongbow, telling a silent story of 
long passed years. Next come Bag and Bun heads, with 
Martello towers, named says tradition, from two of the 
invaders vessels, and in regular order Bannow, Feathard, 
Ballyteighe. We pass inside the Saltee Islands, the Conning 
Beg and Conning More rocks, round Crossfarnoge point, 
and at 11.30 Carnsore Point is abeam, and an hour later 
Tuscar Rock, whence we have an eighty mile run up channel, 
N. E. by E. J E., for the south stack on the coast of Wales. 
We spend the day watching the hosts of steamers and sailing 
craft moving about in all directions, and feel very much- as 
if approaching home upon a well-known country road 
where every object and outline is familiar, after a long 
absence. 

At 8.30 P. M. the South Stack is abeam, and rounding 
we steer for the Skerries, the light upon which is so 
often visible to trans-atlantic voyageurs. At 10.45 Point 
Lynas light illumines our course, and we lay over for the 
Bar Light Ship ; inside us we picture vividly in our imagina- 
tions Penmanmawr, Llanfairfechan, behind which ftnowdon 
climbs up into the sky in all the majesty of 3,570 feet sup- 
ported by Cam Llewellyn and Cam David, beautiful 
in daylight in his halo of ethereal blue. Then the Orms- 
heads, with Llandudno nestling in between their sheltering 
heights. 



176 Homeward Bound, 

At 2.30 we pass close aboard the Bar Lightship, and recol- 
lections of early hardships come vividly to our minds. Many 
a night have we passed hereabouts trying to work up against 
a weather running ebb tide, boarding back and forwards and 
craning our necks into the darkness to catch a sight of the 
channel buoys without which the sea breaks upon shelving and 
at low water dry sand banks. Many a young Liverpool yachts- 
man has cut his eye teeth here as he caught a northwester 
unexpectedly, and here the Corinthian crews of the ten ton 
fleet of the Cheshire yacht club graduated in the seaman- 
ship that has so often been admired during their Regattas. 
Soon Crosby Light ship is passed, and on the starboard 
Bidston lighthouse high above all from the hilltop throws his 
rays across to us, while his shadow darkens our old home and 
the resting place in Wallasea Parish church yard of all that is 
mortal of one, whom, if God had thought fit would now 
have been cuddled in his little bunk in youthful forgetful- 
ness below our decks. For twenty-four hours, reader, we 
have been at home, and have since been merely making 
for our anchorage. Would that we could all feel that in 
this res]#ct our little trip is typical of the longer voyage 
upon which we are engaged. 

At 3.30 the Rock light is passed and the Liverpool city 
lights suggest to us that the sky must somehow have fallen, so 
thickly are they huddled together and so bright are their 
twinkles. Scarce less closely strewn are the anchor lights of 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 177 

the many vessels in the river, glimmering in its ripples 
through which we glide in silence up the door steps, so to 
speak, of our English home. New Brighton is passed, 
Egremont, Seacombe, Woodside, Rock Ferry and we are in 
the Sloyne, into whose mud we have so often let drop our 
anchor in days and nights of yore. Down comes our can- 
vas as we round to and our anchor tastes its native earth 
once more. Well has our little ship borne us along in fair 
weather and foul, and now she has reached her well deserved 
repose, and her master too seeks his rest after his fortnights 
strain and two consecutive nights of wakefulness. 



" Mr. Rector, I give you the heathen for an inheritance, and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for a possession." 



WEDNESDAY, JULY 6TH, 1881. 



So sp'ake the Bishop of the diocese after he had inducted the 

late Rector into the living of Liverpool more than a 

generation agone, and truly he who would seek for picturesque 
and sylvan scenes must look for them elsewhere than where 
commerce wears her laurels, nevertheless, " the good old 
town," as its inhabitants delighted to call it could exhibit 
more than heathen, and lovelier surroundings are not often 
found than the environs of the greatest shipping port of the 
world. The returns of a year or two since give the tonnage 
owned by her merchants, as 2,647,372 tons as com- 
pared with London's 2,330,688, Glasgow's 1,432,364 and 
New York's 1,153,676. Our decks are early astir this 
morning by sight seeing passengers, nor is our little ship 
wanting in interest for those whose avocation bring them 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey, 179 

within view of the stars and stripes flying at her fore, telling 
of the voyage we have completed as well as the land we 
have left. 

First at our family and general gathering we thank our 
Maker for his safe keeping during our voyage and breakfast 
soon asserts its importance above all other attractions. 
Robinson has already, it is evident, culled from the display 
of St. John's market for our gratification, and never was meal 
more thoroughly enjoyed. We work up our passage and 
find all things considered we have done well. We lost many 
hours in the hurricane, and from lesser sources of delay 
but have made as short a trip as could have been expected, 
allowing 5 h. & 27" for difference in time, we have crossed 
from the Lazaretto to our present anchorage in 15 days, 12 
hours, 53' and 33/' our distance logged 3,401 nautical miles 
or 3,855 statutes. 

The " Mary Whitridge," a Baltimore clipper trader of 
more than twice our size, is said to have once made the same 
run from Cape Henry* to Liverpool, logging 3,400 miles in 
13 days, 7 hours. 

The following runs have been made by vessels similar to 

ours : 

1866. 
Sandy Hook to Cowes. — Racing. 

" Henrietta," . . 13 days, 21 hours, 55 min., 

"Fleetwing," . 14 " 6 " 10 " 

"Vesta," ... 14 " 6 " 50 " 



1 80 Homeward Bound, 

1867. 
Returning. — Cowes to Sandy Hook. 

"Vesta," 34 days, 

« Henrietta,' ' ........ 6 " 

Cowes to New Bedford. 
"Fleetwing," 42 days, 6 hours. 

1868. 
New York to Cowes. 

"Sappho," 14 days. 

Cowes to New York. 
"Sappho," 32 days. 

1869. 
New York to Queenstown. — Racing. 

u Sappho," ... 12 days, 9 hours, 36 min. 
"Dauntless," . . 12 " 17 " 6 " 

1870. 
Queenstown to New York. — Racing. 

"Dauntless," . . . 23 days, 7 hours, 
"Cambria," ... 23 " 5 " 17 min. 

Cowes to New York. 
" Sappho," ......... 32 days. 

1872. 
New York to Cowes. 

" Sappho," 18 days, 

"Dauntless," 25 " 



From the Chesapeake to the Mersey. 181 

Cowes to New York. 
"Dauntless," 35 days. 

1871. 
Cowes to New York. 

"Livonia," ... 28 days, 22 hours, 50 min. 

And now reader we must say farewell, our voyage has 
not been rich in incident, and we fear has gained nothing 
in discription. 

It has been a joyous one for those engaged in it. By 
day we revelled in the enjoyments and circumstances attend- 
ing the novelty of our chosen venture, our evenings in 
mutual efforts for the general entertainment. 

11 We spent them not in toys, in lusts or wine, 
But search of deep philosophy, 
Wit, eloquence and poetry ; 
Arts which I loved ; for they my friend were thine." 

And as for our nights with little exception we were 
unconscious of their existence. 



APPENDIX. 



ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 



"The attempt to discover a northwest passage was made as early 
as the year 1500, by the Portugese ' Cortereal.'" 

In 1585, a company was promoted with a similar object in London. 
From 1743 to 1818, a bonus of ,£20,000 from government awaited 
a successful adventurer subsequently a modification was substituted, 
offering £5,000 for each degree to the navigator who would reach 
110°, 120° and 130° west longitude — Captain Parry, obtained one 
payment. Rewards were also offered for attaining high latitudes, 
but as the lowest parallel entitled to consideration was 83° north, 
nothing appears to have resulted. 

Parry, Ross, Richardson and Back, received the honour of knight- 
hood. 

1498 and 1517 — Sebastian Cabot, was engaged in arctic exploration, 
1527 — Robert Thorne, of Bristol, directed an expedition of which 

nothing appears to be known. 
1553 — Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, in the 
" Edward," u Bonaventura," " Bona Esperanza," and u Bona 
Confidentia," attempted an eastern passage to China, the 
former discovers "Nova Zembla," Chancellor reached Arch- 
angel the following year, the rest perished. 
1576 — Sir Martin Frobisher attempted a northwest route to China. 
1585, 1586, 1587 — Captain John Davis, was engaged in the pursuit 
of a northwest passage. He crossed the circle in 1585 and 
explored both sides of the bay bearing his name, reaching as 
far as 72° 12' north latitude. 
1594, 1595 — Dutch Expedition, in charge of Barentz to the north- 
east, discovers Spitzbergen and Bear Islands. 
1596 — Barentz again attempts to pass across the pole to India. 
1602— Weymouth and Knight. 

1607 to 1610 — Four Voyages of Henry Hudson, during which he 
discovers the Bay that bears his name. In 1610 he reached 
ar far as 73° N. on east coast of Greenland. He was forced 
into a boat with eight hands and left to perish. 



184 Arctic Explorations. 

1612 — Sir Thomas Buttons Expeditions. 

1616 — William Baffin discovered the Bay called after him, exploring 
it in a little solitary vessel of 50 tons, the credit due to him 
may be estimated from the fact that for two hundred years 
no one dared to follow him. His discoveries were verified 
by Parry and Ross in 1818. 

1610, 1611 — Jonas Pool attempts to reach the North Pole. 

1614— Baffin and Fotherby. 

1615— Fotherby. 

1631— Fox. 

1728, 1729, 1741 — Behring discovers the Straits leading from the 
Pacific into the Arctic. 

1742 — Middleton's Expeditions. 

1746 — Moore and Smith's Expeditions. 

1769 — Hearne's Land Expeditions. 

1773— Phipps. 

1773 — Lord Mulgraves, penetrating as far north as 80° 48. 

1776— Captain Cook in the " Resolution " and " Discovery." In 1778 
he passes through Behring's Straits, reaching as far north as 
70° 44, the highest attained heretofore in that direction. 
Captain Clark, successor to Captain Cook in 1779, Joseph 
Billings in 1790, and Lieut. Kotzebue in 1816, all passed to 
the same regions, but none attained the same altitude. 

1789 — Mackenzie Expeditions. 

1790 — Captain Duncan's. 

1795— Captain Vancouver's return from Pacific Coast of north- 
west America. 
806 — The senior Captain Scoresby penetrates to 81° 30 north 
latitude. 

1815 — Lieut. Kotzebue's expedition. 

1817 — Whalers penetrated to a height hitherto unusual in Baffin's 
Bay. 

1818 — Captain Ross and Lieut. Parry in the lt Isabella" and 
"Alexander." 

1818 — Captain Buchan and Lieut. Franklin in the " Dorothea " 
and "Trent." Franklin's first voyage. 

1819 — Franklin's second expedition. 



Arctic Explorations. 185 

1810 — Lieuts. Parry and Liddon in the "Hecla" and "Griper" 
returned to Leith in November, 1820, reached longitude 
112° 51, in latitude 74° 22, made many discoveries in Lan- 
caster Sound, find and winter at Melville's Island, and in lati- 
tude 74° 26' 25" reach as far west as 113° 46 / 43', thereby 
penetrating 32]° or 520 miles farther west than any former 
navigator. 

[821 — Captains Parry and Lyon in the "Fury" and "Hecla," 
returning October, 1823. 

1822 — Captain Scoresby in the whale fishery penetrated ice 150 
miles toward the coast of Greenland in 15° north, remaining 
in sight of land from 7th of June to 26th of August, surveyed 
from 69° to 75°, took 500 bearings and angles, 500 observations 
for deviation of compasses upon 50 stations. 

L824 — Captain Parry made a third voyage in the '-' Hecla." 

L825 — Captains Franklin and Lyon sail again from Liverpool. 

L827 — Captain Parry again sails in the "Hecla" from Deptford, 
reaching within 435 miles of the North Pole, 22nd June, 
returning 6th of October. 

L833 — Captain Parry returns from a later expedition after four years 
absence, when all hope of his safety had been abandoned. 
On the first of June 1831, his nephew, Ross, discovered the 
Magnetic Pole 7o° 5 / 17" N. latitude, and 96° 4G' 45" W. 
longitude. 

836 — June 21 — Cap. Back sailed from Chatham in command of 
PI. M. ship " Terror," on an exploring voyage to Wager River. 
The Geographical Society awarded him a medal, Dec. 18, 
1835, for his energy and polar discoveries. 

845 — May 24 — Sir John Franklin and Captains Crozier and Fitz- 
james leave England in the " Erebus " and " Terror," carry- 
ing 138 souls, sailing from Greenhithe. Their last dispatches 
were from the Whalefish Islands, dated 12th July, 1845. 

848— January 1 — H. M. Ship "Plover," Cap. Moore, sailed in 
search to Behring's Straits. 

848— H. M. Ship Herald, Cap. Kellett, C. B., made 3 trips to 
Behring's Straits, returned in 1851. 

848 — March 25 — Sir John Richardson and Doctor Rae, of the 



186 Arctic Explorations . 



Hudson Bay Company, left England for an overland search. 
The former returned to England in 1349. Doctor Rae re- 
maining till 1851, continuing his investigations. 

1848 — June 12 — Sir James Ross, in the "Enterprise " and "Inves- 
tigator," sailed in search to Barrows' Straits, returning to 
Scarborough Nov. 3, 1849. Seven deaths, including one 
officer. 

1849 — II. M. Ship "North Star" spent one winter and 51 days in 
Melville Bay, wintered in Walstenholme Sound, and re- 
turned to Spithead Sept. 28, 1850. Four deaths. 

1849— H. M. Ship "Plover," Captains Moore and Maguire. Three 
winters. Three deaths. 

1850 — Jan. 20 — Captain Collinson in the " Enterprise," and Com- 
mander McClure in the " Investigator," sailed from Plymouth 
for Behring's Straits. The "Enterprise" away three winters, 
had three deaths ; the " Investigator" away four winters, had 
six deaths, including one officer. On the 6th of September 
McClure discovered highland, which he named Baring's Land ; 
on the 9th, other land, which he named after Prince Albert. 
On the 30th the ship was frozen in. Entertaining a strong 
conviction that the water in which his vessel lay communi- 
cated with Barrow Straits, he set out on 21st October with 
a few men on his sledge, on the 26th October he reached 
Point Russell, (73° 31' N. latitude, 114° 14' west longitude,) 
where from an elevation of 600 feet he saw Parry or Melville 
Sound beneath him ; the strait connecting the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans he named after the Prince of Wales. The 
Investigator was the first ship that traversed the Polar 
Sea from Behring's Straits to Baring's Islands. Intelli- 
gence of this discovery was brought to England by Com. 
Inglefield. Captain McClure returned to England, Sep- 
tember, 1854. In 1855, ^"5,000 were paid to Capt. McClure, 
afterwards Sir Robert McClure, and ^"5,000 was distribu- 
ted among his crew. 
1850 — Apr. 25 — Captain Austin with the " Resolute," " Assistance," 
Captain Ommaney, "Intrepid," Captain Bertie Cator, and 
"Pioneer" Captain Sherrard Osborn, left England for Bar- 



Arctic Explorations. 187 

row's Straits. Returned September, 1851, the "Resolute," one 
death, "Assistance" none, "Pioneer" none, "Intrepid" none, 

1850 — Apr. 13 — "Lady Franklin," Captain Penny, and "Sophia," 
Captain Stewart, sailed from Aberdeen for Barrow's Straits. 
Returned September, 1851, no deaths. 

1850 — Sir John Ross and Captain Phillips in schooner "Phoenix," 
one winter, no casualties. Fitted up chiefly by Hudson's 
Bay Company. 

1850 — May 25 — The American expedition of Lieutenant De Haven 
and Doctor Kane in the "Advance," and "Rescue" Lieut. 
Griffith, commonly known as the " Grinnell " Expedition, 
and towards the expenses of which he subscribed $30,000, 
sailed for Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Straits. After 
drifting in the pack down Baffin's Bay, the ships were re- 
leased without casualty in 1851. 

1851 — Mr. Kennedy in the schooner "Prince Albert," one winter, 
no casualty. 

1852 — April 15 — The "Enterprise" and "Investigator" not having 
been heard of for two years, much anxiety was felt as to 
their safety, and Sir Edward Belcher's expedition was dis- 
patched, in the "Assistance," Sir Edward Belcher, C. B., 
"Resolute," Captain Kellett, C. B., "North Star," Captain 
Pullen, "Intrepid," Captain McClintock, and "Pioneer," 
Captain Sherrard Osborn, sailing from Woolwich. This ex- 
pedition arrived at Beechy Island, August 14th, 1852. The 
"Assistance" and "Pioneer" proceeded through Wellington 
Channel, and the "Resolute" and "Intrepid" to Melville 
Island. The "North Star" remaining at Beechy Island. 

1853— May — II. M. Ship " Phoenix," Captain Inglefield, accom- 
panied by Lieut. Bellot of the French navy, and the trans- 
port "Breadalbine," returned in October bringing dispatches 
from Sir Edward Belcher. His expedition was safe but no 
trace of Franklin's party had been met with> Lieut. Bellot 
was unfortunately drowned in August while voluntarily con- 
veying dispatches for Sir Edward Belcher. Capt. McClure 
had left the "Herald" at Cape Lisbon, July 31, 1850. On the 
8th of October the ship was frozen in and continued so for 



188 Arctic Explorations, 



nine months; on the 26th of October, 1850, while on an ex- 
cursion party, the Captain discovered an entrance to Barrow's 
Straits, and thus established the existence of a northwest 
passage. In September, 1851, his ship was again frozen in 
and so remained till Lieut. Pirn imd a party from Captain 
Kellett's ship "Resolute," fell in with them April, 1853. 
The position of the " Enterprise " was still unknown. Sir 
Edward Belcher in April, 1854, determined to abandon his 
ships, and gave orders to that effect to all the Captains under 
his command. Captain Kellett gave similar orders to Captain 
McClure of the "Investigator." The vessels had been aban- 
doned 15th May, when the crews of the " Phoenix " and u Tal- 
bot, " under Capt.Inglefield arrived. On their return to England 
all the Captains were tried by court martial and honorably 
acquitted. Capt. Collinson's fate was long uncertain, and an 
expedition was in contemplation, when intelligence came, 
February 1855, that he had met the " Rattlesnake " at Fort 
Clarence, on 21st August, 1854, and had sailed immediately 
in hopes of getting up with Maguire in the "Plover," that 
had sailed two days previously. Capt. Collinson having failed 
in getting through the ice in 1850 with Capt. McClure, re- 
turned to Hong Hong to winter. In 1851 he passed through 
Prince of Wales Straits and remained in the Arctic regions 
without obtaining any intelligence of Franklin till July 1854, 
when being once more released from the ice, he sailed for 
Fort Clarence, where he arrived as above mentioned. Capts. 
Collinson and Maguire arrived in England May, 1855. 
1853 — June — The second American expedition under Dr. Kane in 

the Advance. 2 winters, took the pack 10 days. 
1853 — Dr. Rae, in the spring of 1853, again proceeded toward the 
magnetic pole, and in July, 1854, he reported to the admiralty 
that he had purchased from a party of Esquimaux a number of 
articles that had belonged to Sir John Franklin and his party. 
Sir John's star or order, part of a watch, silver spoons and 
forks, with crest, &c. He also reported a statement of the 
natives that they had met a party of white men about four 
winters previous, and had sold them a seal ; and four months 



Arctic Explorations. 189 

later, in the same season they had found the bodies of 30 
men, who had evidently perished by starvation in the neigh- 
bourhood of Great Fish River. Ur. Rae arrived in England on 
October 22. 1854, with the relics which have since been de- 
posited in Greenwich Hospital. He and his companions 
were awarded ^10,000 for their discovery. 

1854 — Capt. Inglefield in the "Phoenix," summer cruise, in the 
pack 30 days. 

1854 — Capt. Jenkins in H. M. S. " Talbot," summer cruise. 

1855 — May 31 — The third American expedition in the "Release" 
and steamer "Arctic," and barque "Eringo,"and another 
vessel under command of Lieut. Hartstene, accompanied by 
Dr. Kane's brother as surgeon, sailed in search of Dr. Kane 
in the "Advance," (sailed June, 1853.) On the 17th May 
1855, Dr. Kane and his companions abandoned the "Ad- 
vance," and journeyed over the ice 1300 miles to a Danish 
settlement. On their way home in a Danish vessel they fell 
in with Lieut. Hartstene, Sept. 18, and arrived with him at 
New York, October 11, 1855. 

1855 — June — Hudson's Bay Company sent out another overland ex- 
pedition, directed but unaccompanied by Dr. Rae and Sir 
G. Back, which returned in the following September. Some 
further remains of the Franklin expedition were discovered. 

LADY FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITIONS. 
1850— June 5— The "Prince Albert," Capt. Forsyth, sailed from 

Aberdeen to Barrow Straits. Returned unsuccessful, October 

1st. 
1851— June 4— The "Prince Albert," Mr. Kennedy accompanied 

by Lieut. Bellot of the French navy, and John Hepburn, 

sailed from Stromnes' to Prince Regent's Inlet. Returned 

October. 
1852— July 6— The "Isabel," Com. Inglefield, sailed for head of 

Baffin's Bay, Jones Sound and the Wellington Channel, and 

returned in November. 
1853— H. M. S. "Rattlesnake," Com. Trollope, despatched to 

assist the "Plover," Capt. Maguire, who succeeded Capt. 



1 90 Arctic Explorations. 

Moore at Point Barrow, met with it in August, 1853. 

1857 — The British Government declining further assistance. Lady 
Franklin dispatches the "Fox" in charge of Capt. McClin- 
tock (now Admiral Sir Leopold of the North American 
Station,) sailed from Aberdeen July 1st, 1857, returned Sept. 
22, 1859. On May 6th, 1859, Lieut. Hobson found at Point 
Victory, near Cape Victoria, besides a cairn, a tin case, con- 
taining a paper signed, April 25th, 1848. by Capt. Fitzjames 
(of the Franklin expedition,) which certified that the ships 
"Erebus" and "Terror," on September 12th, 1846, were 
beset in latitude 70° 50' north, longitude 98° 23' west. That 
Sir John Franklin died June 11th, 184*7, and that the ships 
were deserted April 2 2d, 1848. Capt. McClintock continued 
the search and discovered skeletons and other relics. His 
Journal was published in December, 1859. 
The northwest passage was thus discovered by Sir John 
Franklin, by sailing down Peel and Victoria Straits, now 
named Franklin Straits, and Capt. McClure in sailing from 
Behring's Straits, and rinding an entrance into Barrow's 
Straits. 

1860 — American expedition in schooner li United States," Dr. 
Hayes. One winter, two days in Melville Bay. 

18*71 — June 29 — Steamer "Polaris," Capt. Hall. Two winters, 
frozen in September, he died November 8, crew reached 
Newfoundland . 

1873 — Steamer "Juniata," Lieut. Merriman. Summer cruise. 

1873 — Steamer " Tigress," Capt. Green. Summer cruise. 

The American Franklin search expedition, under Lieut. 

Schwatka, of the U. S. navy, in an overland expedition in the 
summer and autumn of .1879, discovers some human remains 
of the crews of the ships and other relics, amongst others he 
found the remains of Lieut. John Irving, of the "Terror," 
which he brought home to Massachusetts in September, 1880. 
They were sent to England and buried at Edinburgh, 1881. 

1869 — June 15 — A German expedition consisting of the " Germania" 
and "Hansa," arrived at Pendulum Bay, Greenland, July 18th, 
1869. The vessels parted company, the "Germania" arrived 



Arctic Explorations. 191 

at Bremen, September 11th, 1870. The u Hansa" was frozen 
and sunk October, 18-59, the crew escaped with provisions 
and reached Copenhagen, September 1st, 1870. 

1872 — A Norwegian arctic expedition. 

1872 — A Swedish expedition under Prof. Nordenskjold, sailed 
from Tromso, July 21, 1872. Unsuccessful, returned during 
summer. 

1871 — Mr. B. Legh Smith sailed to 81° 24' and discovered land to 
the N. E. of Spitzbergen. In other voyages he discovered 
under currents of warm water flowing into the Polar basin, he 
relieved the Swedish expedition, 1872-73. 

1874 — November 17th — Mr. Disraeli consents to a new Arctic ex- 
pedition. ^"38,620 voted for the cost, March 5th, 1875. 

187") — May 20 — Captain G. S. Nares, who had made the celebrated 
scientific voyage round the world in command of H. M. ship 
Challenger, was appointed to the command of the u A.lert,"and 
Capt. II. F. Stevenson to the "Discovery." Dispatches re- 
ceived from Disco, July 15th. The u Alert" arrived at 
Yalentia, October 27th, the " Discovery" at Queenstown, 
October 29th. Results : ships reached 83° 20 / 26" 12" May, 
1876, passage to the Pole declared to be impracticable, no 
signs of open polar sea ; sun absent 142 days ; no Esquimaux 
beyond 81° 52' ; out of 120 souls, 4 deaths, (1 frostbitten, 
3 scurvy ;) greatest cold 72° below zero; cost of expedition 

£120,000. 

1875 — Capt. Allen Young, (now Sir Allen Young,) sailed in the 

yacht tl Pandora" June 25th, 1875, returned October 19th. 
1876 — Sailed again June 2d, returned October 31st. 
1878 — April — Dutch expedition sailed from Holland. 
18*79 — July 8 — Mr. James Gordon Bennett's expedition, in charge 

of Lieut. DeLong, sailed in his yacht the ll Jeannette " for 

Behring's Straits. 
—May 6 — Another Dutch expedition in "William Barentz,'' 

returned to Hammerfest, Norway, September 24th. 
1878— July 4— Prof. Nordenskjold in the "Vega." sailed July 4th, 
B ; at Port Dickson, on the Yenisei, August 6th ; at the 

mouth of the "Lena River," August 27th; at Yakutsk, 



192 Arctic Explorations. 

September 22d; imprisoned in ice near Tschutshe settlement 
September 28th, 1878 till July L8th, 1879 ; passed east Cape 
Behring's Strait ; entered St. Lawrence Bay in Pacific 
ocean, July 20th ; reached Yokohama, September 2nd. Thus 
successfully discovering and practically proving the existence 
of the northeast Passage, chiefly at the expense of Mr. Oscar 
Dickson of Gothenburg. 
1880 — Mr. Leigh Smith successful in another expedition in his 
yacht "Eira" from and to Peterhead, between June 22nd 
and October 12, 1880. 
The " Resolute" of Capt. Kellett's expedition was picked up 
by Capt. Henry, commanding an American whaler, and 
brought to New York. The American Government with 
kindly good will and sympathy, had the vessel thoroughly 
overhauled, and dispatched to England in charge of Capt. 
Hartstene, by whom she was presented to Her Majesty on the 
part of the United States Government. 

*Much of the above from "Haydon's'' Excellent "Dictionary of 
Dates." 



SOME OF ENGLAND'S NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. 



897 — Alfred with ten Galleys, defeated three-hundred Sail of Dan- 
ish Pirates. 

1340 — June 24 — Edward the Third, off the coast of Holland, destroys 
the French Fleet taking two-hundred and thirty of their ships 
with tremendous slaughter. 

1350 — Aug. 29 — The same King off Winchelsea, defeated the Spanish 
Fleet of forty large vessels, taking twenty-six of them. 

1371 — The Flemings are totally defeated. 

1387 — March 24 — The Earl of Arundel, captures eighty out of a 
Flemish Fleet of one hundred sail. 

1405 — Off Milford Haven, the English defeat the French, destroy- ■ 
ing fifteen and capturing eight vessels. 

1416 — August 15 — The Duke of Bedford, captures and destroys 500 
French vessels. 

1459 — The Earl of Warwick, captures in the Downs, a Spanish 
and Genoese fleet. 

1588 — July 19 — The Spanish Armada destroyed, consisting of 132 
vessels, 3,165 guns, 8,766 seamen, besides 2,088 galley slaves, 
21,855 soldiers, 1,355 volunteers, and 150 monks, commanded 
by the Duke Medina Sidonia. The British fleet commanded 
by Lord Charles Howard, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John 
Hawkins, consisting of little over 30 vessels. The Spanish 
lost 35 vessels and 13,000 men. 

1591— August— Off Florez, H. M. Ship " Revenge," Sir Richard 
Grenville,- cousin to Sir Walter Raleigh, with 100 men was 
surrounded by a large Spanish fleet, fifteen several vessels, 
some carrying 800 men, some 500, some 200, assailed her in vain 
during an afternoon and night, many of which she sank. 
At daylight, all her powder was gone, all her pikes broken, 
40 of her crew killed, 800 shot through her hull, her com- 
mander badly wounded, his surgeon killed while attending 
him, and 1,500 of the enemy succumbed to his prowess; his 
vessel and crew surrendered. 



194 Some of England's Naval Engagements. 

1652 — Nov. 29 — Off Dover, Van Tromp was defeated by admiral 
Blake, who was afterwards surprised and attacked by 80 
against 40 of his vessels in the Downs ; the British lose several 
vessels and are defeated. Van Tromp sailing away in triumph, 
with a broom at his masthead in token of having swept the 
English from the seas. 

1653 — February 18-2C — Blake meets Van Tromp off Portsmouth, 
gains a victory, taking 11 men of war and 30 merchantmen. 

1653 — June 2 — Off the Foreland, Van Tromp with 100 vessels, Blake, 
Monk and Deane with an equal force meet. Six Dutch 
vessels are captured, eleven are sunk and remainder run into 
Calais Roads. 

1653— July 31— Off the Coast of Holland, Van Tromp is killed, the 
Dutch striking to the British, after the loss of 30 vessels. 

1656 — September — Blake captures in Cadiz two galleons, with two 
million "pieces of eight." 

1657 — April 20 — Spanish fleet vanquished and burnt in the harbour 
of Santa Cruz by Blake. 

1664 — December 4 — The Duke of York, afterwards James II, des- 
troys 130 vessels of the Bordeaux fleet. 

1665— June 13— The Duke of York defeats the Dutch fleet, under 
Opdam, taking 18 and destroying 14 ships off Harwich. 

1865 — September 4 — The Earl of Sandwich takes 12 men of war 
and 2 merchantmen. 

1666 — June 1-4 — English and Dutch meet again ; after a drawn 
battle, the former have lost 9 and the Dutch 15 ships. 

1666 — June 25-26 — Meet again, when the English gain brilliant 
laurels, the Dutch losing 4 admirals, 4,000 seamen and 24 
vessels. 

166*7 — June 11 — Dutch admiral De Ruyter sails up the Thames and 
takes some British vessels. 

1671 — May 10 — Sir Edward Spragg destroys 12 Algerine ships of 
war. 

1672 — May 28 — Off Suffolk coast, terrible engagement between 
English and French as allies, against the Dutch. The Duke 
of York commanding for England. The English lose 4 ships 
and the Dutch three, the latter routed and pursued to their 



Some of England r s Naval Engagements. 195 

own coast. " The Earl of Sandwich" is blown up and many 
lives lost. 

1673 — May 28, June 4, Aug. 11 — British fleet under Prince Rupert 
in several engagements defeats d'Etrees and De Ruyter. Sir 
E. Spragg killed. 

1690 — June 30 — English and Dutch defeated by the French under 
Tourville. 

1692 — May 19 — The French defeated under Tourville by the same, 
off Cape la Hogue. 

1693— June 16— Off St. Vincent, English and Dutch, 23 ships, 
under Admiral Rooke, defeated by the French, with 160 ships. 

1702 — Aug. 19 — Off Carthagena, the British and French fleets, com- 
manded by Admiral Benbow and Admiral Du Casse respec- 
tively, fought. The former, abandoned by the rest of his 
fleet, a chain shot shattered his leg, he w T ould not leave 
the quarter deck, but fought all night. In the morning the 
French bore away. The Admiral died at Jamaica in the 
following October of his wounds, previous to his death he 
received a letter from the gallant Du Casse, as follows : 

Carthagena, Aug. 22, 1702. 
Sir : — I had little hopes on Monday last but to have supped in 
your cabin, yet it pleased God to order it otherwise. I am 
thankful for it; as for those cowardly Captains, who deserted 

you, hang them up, for by G they deserve it. 

DU CASSE. 
Captains Kirby and Wade were tried by court martial and 
shot. 

1702— October 17 — Sir Geo. Rooke, with the fleets of the English 
and Dutch, attacked the French and Spanish galleons off 
Vigo, taking several of each and much treasure. 

1704 — Nov. 5 — French defeated off Malaga, losing 5 ships of war. 

1708 — May 22 — Admiral Leake takes 60 French vessels, laden with 
provisions, in the Mediterranean. 

1718 — July 31 — Sir George Byng totally defeats the Spanish fleet 
of 29 vessels. 

1743— Feb. 11— Bloody battle off Toulon, lost by the English, 
through misunderstanding between Admirals Matthews and 



196 Some of England 's Naval Engagements. 

Lescock, former dismissed the service for misconduct. 
1*74*7— Admiral Anson, off Finisterre, captures the French fleet of 

38 vessels of war. 
174*7 — October 14 — Off Finisterre, Admiral Hawke captured from 

the French, 7 vessels of war. 
1*755 — June 10 — Admiral Boscawen takes 2 French ships of war. 
1*757 — October 21 — Three English vessels defeat 7 Frenchmen off 

Cape Francoise, 
1758 and 1759 — French are defeated in the East Indies by Admiral 

Pocock. 
1759 — August 18 — Boscawen defeats the French off Lagos. 
1759 — November 20 — Hawke defeats the French fleet in Quiberon 

Bay under Conflans, destroying a projected invasion of 

England. 
1762— October 9 — Keppel takes 3 French frigates, and a fleet of 

merchantmen. 
1776 — Oct. 11 — Lord Howe destroys Provincial force on Lake 

Champlain. 
1778— June 16-17— The saucy a Arethusa," 32 guns, off Ushant, 

after two hours conflict with "La Belle Poule," causes her 

to fly. 
1778 — July 27 — Drawn battle between Keppel and d'Orvilliers. 
1779 — American force of New England totally destroyed. 
1780 — January 16-17 — Admiral Rodney, off St. Vincent, defeats the 

Spanish fleet under Don Langara, capturing 6 ships with the 

Admiral himself. 
1780 — April 16 — At St. Jago, Mons Sufferin defeated by Commodore 

Johnstone. 
1781 — August 5— -Admiral Parker and the Dutch Admiral Zoutman 

meet on the Dogger Bank, 400 killed on each side. 
1782 — April 12 — Rodney attacks French fleet in West Indies, bound 

to attack Jamaica, takes 5 ships of the line, and sends De 

Grasse prisoner to England. 
1782 — September 13 — Combined fleets of France and Spain signally 

defeated in the Bay of Gibraltar. 
1782 — February 17 — Sir Edward Hughes in the East Indies with 9 

ships, meets the French with 11. 



Some of England's Naval Engagements. 197 

1732 — April 12 — 11 ships to 18, and is completely victorious in both. 
1782 — July G — Off Trimcomalee, 12 to 15 and carries the day, 

killing 1000 Frenchmen. 
1783 — June 20 — Again victorious. 
1794 — June 1 — Off Ushant Lord Howe defeats the French, taking 

6 ships of war sinking another. 
1795 — March 8 — Sir Edward Pellew took 15 sail, burnt 7 out of a 

fleet of 35 sail and transports. 
1795 — March 14 — Admiral Hotham defeats French fleet, taking 2 

ships of war. 
1795— June 7 — Admiral Cornwallis takes 8 transports convoyed by 

3 French ships of war. 
1795 — June 19 — 11 Dutch East Indiamen taken by the u Sceptre," 

and some armed East Indiamen. 
1795— June 23— Lord Bridport defeats the French fleet off 1' Orient, 

taking 3 ships of the line. 
1796 — August 17 — Dutch squadron, under Admiral Lucas, taken by 

Sir George Elphinstone in Saldanha Bay. 
1797 — February 14 — Sir John Jervis with the Mediterranean fleet 

of 15 sail defeated the Spanish fleet of 27 ships of the line off 

St. Vincent, taking 4 ships and sinking many. Nelson was 

in this engagement. 
1797 — February 14 — Unsuccessful attack on Santa Cruz. Here 

Nelson loses his right arm. 
1797 — October 11 — Admiral Duncan defeats the Dutch fleet off 

Camperdown, near the Texel, under De Winter, taking and 

destroying 15 vessels. 
179 8 — Aug 1 — Battle of the Nile, (Aboukir). French under Brueys 

and the British under Sir Horatio Nelson. 9 French line of 

battle ships taken, 2 burnt, and 2 escaped. The French 

Admiral's ship "L'Orient," with 1,000 men on board blew up, 

only 70 or 80 amongst whom Bruey's was not, escaped. 

It was here Nelson exclaimed on commencing the engage- 
ment, "Victory or Westminster Abbey." 
1798— Oct. 12-Off the coast of Ireland, a French fleet of 9 sail, 

with troops intended as succour for the Irish rebellion, beaten 

by Sir John Borlaise Warren and 5 vessels captured. 



198 Some of England's Naval Engagements. 

1799 — Aug. 30 — The Texel fleet of 12 ships and 13 Indiamen, sur- 
renders to Admiral Mitchell. 

1800 — July 29 — The French gun brig a Cerbere," with 87 men and 
and 7 guns, in the harbour of L' Orient, within pistol shot of 
three batteries, was captured in a most daring manner, by 
Lieut. Jeremiah Coghlan, in a cutter with 19 companions, 
aided by two boats, one commanded by midshipman Paddon. 
The prize was towed out under a heavy but ineffectual fire 
from the batteries. 

1801 — April 2 — Copenhagen bombarded by the English fleet, under 
Lord Nelson and Admiral Parker, and out of 23 ships of the 
line, 18 were taken or destroyed. 

1801 — July 6 — Gibraltar Bay, engagement between British and 
French fleets. The u Hannibal " of 74 guns was lost to the 
British. 

1801 — July 12— Off Cadiz, Sir James Saumarez beats the French and 
Spanish fleets, capturing 1 vessel. 

1805— July 22— Off Ferrol, Sir Robert Calder, with 15 sail, defeats 
the French and Spanish fleets of 20 vessels, taking 2 ships. 

1805— October 21— Trafalgar. A British fleet of 27 ships, under 
Admiral Lord Nelson, who was killed, and succeeded by Lord 
Collingwood, defeats the combined fleets of France with 18 
ships, and the Spanish with 15 ships, under command of 
Admiral Villineuve, and two Spanish Admirals, all of whom 
were captured, and 19 of their vessels taken, sunk or de- 
stroyed. 

1805 — Nov. 4 — Off Cape Ortegal, Sir R. Strachan, with 4 sail, 
captures 4 French ships of war. 

1806— Feb. 6 — In the West Indies, the French defeated by Sir T. 
Duckworth, 3 sail of the line captured, 2 driven ashore. 

1806— March 13 — Sir John Borlaise Warren captures 2 French 
ships. 

1807 — Feb. 17 — Passage of the .Dardanelles effected by Sir John 
Duckworth, the castles of Sestos and Abydos hurling down 
stone shot upon the vessels. 

1807 — Sept. 7— Copenhagen. After 3 days bombardment the City 
of Copenhagen and the Danish fleet surrender to Admiral 



Some of England's Naval Engagements. 199 

Gambier and Lord Cathcart, consisting of 18 sail of the line, 
15 frigates, 6 brigs, 25 gunboats, with immense naval stores, 

1808 — Sept. 3 — The Russian fleet surrenders in the Tagus to the 
British. 

1809 — April 11-12 — Basque Roads, 4 sail of the line surrender to 
Admiral Lord Gambier. 

1809 — July — Sir J. Saumarez captures two Russian flotillas of 
numerous vessels. 

1809 — October 25 — Lord Collingwood drives ashore several French 
vessels, two burnt by their defenders next day. 

1809— November 1— The boats of the "Tigre," " Cumberland," 
»« Volonlaire," "Apollo," "Topaze," "Philomel," "Scout" 
and "Tuscan," in command of Lieut. John Tailour, take 
and destroy 11 armed vessels in Rosas Bay. 

1809 — December 18 — La " Loire " and "La Seine," French frigates, 
destroyed by Admiral Sir A. Cochrane. 

1810 — May 3 — The frigate "Spartan" gallantly engages a large 
French force in the Bay of Naples. 

1810 — May 12 — Action between the " Tribune " and 4 Danish brigs. 

1810 — July 17 — 11 vessels taken or destroyed by the " Armide " and 
"Cadmus," Isle of Rhe. 

1811 — January 16 — Captain Barrett in the merchantman "Cumber- 
land" with 26 men defeats 4 privateers, and takes 1 ?0 prisoners. 

1811 — February 22 — 22 vessels from Otranto taken by the "Cer- 
berus" and "Active." 

1811 — March 13 — Capt. Hosteinthe "Amphion," with the "Active," 
and "Cerberus," frigates, and "Volage," 22 gun ship, defeats 
a Franco Venetian squadron which attacked him, capturing 
the "Corona" and "Bellona." 

1811 — March 25 — French frigate "Amazon" destroyed off Cape Bar- 
fleur. 

1811 — May 1 — Two French store ships burned in Sagone Bay by 
Capt. Barrie. 

1811— May Ik— British sloop "Little Belt" and American ship 
"President." 

1811 — May 20— Three British frigates, under Captain Schomberg, 
engage three larger French with troops, capturing two. 



200 Some of England's Naval Engagements. 

1811— July— The "Thames' 7 and " Cephalus " capture 36 French 

vessels. 
1811 — Sept. 21 — The frigate " Naiad " attacked in the presence of 

Napoleon Bonaparte, by 7 armed praams, gallantly repulses 

them. 
1812 — Aug. 19 — "Guerriere," 46 guns of small calibre, captured by 

American frigate "Constitution," 54 guns, an unequal contest. 
1812 — Oct. 18 — British brig "Frolic" captured by the American 

sloop " Wasp." 
1812 — Oct. 25 — British frigate "Macedonia" taken by the American 

ship " United States," large vessel. 
1812 — Dec. 29 — British frigate "Java" taken by the American ship 

"Constitution," large vessel. 
1812 — Nov. 29 — The French frigates "Pauline" and " Pomone " 

captured by the British frigates "Alceste," "Active" and 

"Unite." 
1812— Feb. 21— French frigate "Rivoli," 84 guns, taken by the 

"Victorious," 74 guns. 
1812— May 22 — Off l'Orient, the "Northumberland" destroys two 

French frigates, &c. 
1813 — Feb. 7 — British Frigate "Amelia " loses 46 men killed and 

95 wounded, engaging a French frigate. 
1813 — Oct. 23— French frigate "La Trave," 44 guns, taken by the 

the "Andromache," 38 guns. 
1813 — February 25 — British sloop "Peacock" captured by the 

American ship " Hornet." She was so disabled that she sunk 

with part of her crew. 
1813 — June 1 — American frigate "Chesapeake," 50 guns 376 men, 

taken by the " Shannon," 38 guns 330 men. 
1813 — June 3 — American ships "Growler" and "Eagle " taken by 

British gunboats. 
1813 — August 4 — American ship "Argus" taken by the British 

sloop " Pelican." 
1814 — March 29 — American frigate "Essex" captured by the "Phebe" 

and "Cherub." 
1814 — September 8 — British sloop "Avon " sunk by American sloop 

"Wasp." 



Some of England s Naval Engagements. 201 

1814 — September 11 — Lake Champlain, British squadron captured 

by the American after a severe conflict. 
1814 — January 15 — American ship " President " captured by the 

11 Endymion." 
1814 — Jan. 6 — French frigate "Ceres" captured by the "Tagus.'" 
1814 — Jan. 1G — French frigates "Alcmene " and <c Iphigenia" taken 

by the u Venerable." 
1814 — Feb. 3— French frigate " Terpsichore " taken by the "Majes- 

tic." 
1814 — Feb. 25 — French ship "Clorinde" taken by the "Dryad" and 

"Achates," after an action with the "Eurotas." 
1814 — March 27 — French frigate "L'Otoile" captured by the 

"Hebrus." 
1816 — Aug. 27 — Algiers bombarded by Lord Exmouth. 
1839— Nov. 3— The " Volage " and "Hyacinth " defeat 29 Chinese 

war junks. 
1840 — Nov. 3 — Acre taken under Admiral Stopford, Egyptians losing 

2,000 killed and wounded and 3,000 prisoners, British loss 12 

killed and 42 wounded. 
During the continuance of the French war of 1802, the forces 

of Great Britain destroyed or captured 
341 French — 45 ships of line, 2 fifties, 132 frigates, 161 sloops, &c. 
89 Dutch ■— 25 " 1 " 31 " 32 " 

86 Spanish— 11 " " 20 lt 55 " 

25 Other Nations— 2 " " 7 " 16 " 

541 vessels of war. 

In the war of 1814 — 

342 French — 70 line, 7 fifties, 77 frigates, 188 sloops. 

127 Spanish— 27 " " 36 " 64 " 

64 Danish —23 el 1 " 24 " 16 u 

17 Russian— 4 " 6 u 7 (i 

19 American— " 1 il 5 iC 13 ll 

569 vessels of war. 

•Much of the above from "Haydon's'' Excellent "Dictionary of 

I) ATI 



SOME EXTRAORDINARY PASSAGES OF TRANS- 
ATLANTIC STEAMSHIPS. 



1882— SS "Alaska" left Sandy Hook, 5.42 P. M. 3 30th May, arrived 

at Queenstown, 8.04 P. M. ; 6th June. Passage 6 days, 22 

hours. 
1882— SS "Servia'Meft Sandy Hook, 6.25 P. M., 18th January, ar- 
rived at Queenstown, 5.35 A. M., 26th January. Passage 7 

days, 8 hours, 6 minutes. 
1882— SS " City of Rome" left Sandy Hook, 10.29 A. M., 22nd April, 

arrived at Queenstown, 6.15 A. M., 30th April. Passage 7 

days, 15 hours, 24 minutes. 
1881— SS "Gallia" left Sandy Hook, 11.28 A. M., 4th May, arrived at 

Queenstown, 10.40 A. M., 12th May. Passage 7 days, 18 

hours, 50 minutes. 
1880— SS "Arizona" left Sandy Hook, 10.10 A. M., 27th September, 

arrived at Queenstown, 10.20 P. M., 4th October. Passage 7 

days, 7 hours, 48 minutes. 
18*77 — SS " Germanic" left Queenstown 10.25, 6th April, arrived at 

Sandy Hook 5.40 P. M., 13th April. Passage 7 days, 11 

hours, 37 minutes. 
1877 — SS "Britannic" left Queenstown 4.35 P. M. 10 August, arrived 

at Sandy Hook, 11.06 P. M„ 17th August. Passage 7 days, 

10 hours, 53 minutes. 
1877— SS "City of Berlin " left Queenstown 7 P. M. 5th October, 

arrived at Sandy Hook 4.50 A. M. 13th October. Passage 7 

days, 14 hours, 12 minutes. 

Difference in time 4 hours, 22 minutes. 



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